The relation between longevity and obesity in human beings

Abstract

During recent years there has developed an increased interest in the question of the dependence of life span on various factors, such as weight, sex, country versus city dwelling, lipoprotein concentration in blood plasma, cigarette smoking, and exposure to high-energy radiation, and much statistical information about it has been gathered.(1) Some effort has also been made, in the case of factors, such as radiation exposure, that can assume a series of values, to express by an equation the relation between the average life span of populations differing with respect to this factor and the parameter representing the factor. Usually a linear equation has been used, often a single term, corresponding to proportionality between the decrease in expected life span and the parameter.