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The idea that the more you weighed the higher your chances of death has been called into question after An evaluation of national data by UC Davis researchers has found that extra weight is not necessarily linked with a higher risk of death.

Researchers found that overweight and obese people did not have an increased risk of death when compared to those with normal weight. The report also revealed that people who were severely obese did have a higher risk, but only if they also had diabetes or hypertension.

The repot was published in the July-August issue of The Journal of American Board of Family Medicine.

Anthony Jerant, professor of family and community medicine and lead author of the study, said doctors should talk to their obese and overweight patients about their options to live a better life. 

"Our results do not mean that being overweight or obese is not a threat to individual or public health," said Jerant. "These conditions can have a significant impact on quality of life, and for this reason alone weight loss may be advisable."

Researchers studied almost 51,000 adults between 18 and 90 years old between 2000 and 2005. The participants were a part of the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys on health-care utilization and costs and were asked to include information on health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

Of all the people included in the UC Davis analysis, 1,683 - just over 3 percent - died during the six years of follow-up.

"Our findings indicate that the risk of having an above-normal BMI may be lower than in the past," said Jerant. "While this study cannot explain the reasons, it is possible that as overweight and obesity have become more common, physicians have become more aware of associated health issues like high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, and are more aggressive about early detection and treatment of these conditions."

Researchers also found that severely obese people were 1.26 times more likely to die during follow-up than people in the normal weight group. However, if people with diabetes or hypertension were eliminated from the data, those who were overweight, obese or even severely obese had similar or even lower death rates than people of normal weight. Consistent with a number of prior studies, underweight people were nearly twice as likely to die than people with normal weight, regardless of whether diabetes or hypertension was present.

 An estimated one-third of all U.S. adults over age 20 are obese and another one-third are overweight. In addition to diabetes and hypertension, health problems associated with these conditions include heart disease, osteoarthritis and sleep apnea.

"We hope our findings will trigger studies that re-examine the relationship of being overweight or obese with long-term mortality," said Jerant.