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> Masters pointed out that a lifetime carrying excess weight can lead to illnesses that, paradoxically, lead to rapid weight loss. If BMI data is captured durin

> Masters pointed out that a lifetime carrying excess weight can lead to illnesses that, paradoxically, lead to rapid weight loss. If BMI data is captured during this time, it can skew study results. “I would argue that we have been artificially inflating the mortality risk in the low-BMI category by including those who had been high BMI and had just lost weight recently,” he said. It's like the teetotaling bias — a chunk of people who teetotal do so because they have an illness that makes drinking very unwise (or would conflict with medication).

cscurmudgeon 4y ago
Reminds of the parachute study that was shared here recently: https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/02/breakthrough-research-reveals-parachutes-dont-prevent-death-when-jumping-from-a-plane/ https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/02/breakthrough-resea...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- HPsquared 4y ago
  I love the meta irony of this article, taking the (somewhat satirical) journal article and playing along as an example of overblown science journalism with the headline "Breakthrough research reveals parachutes don’t prevent death when jumping from a plane". It's beautiful....
  - exfatloss 4y ago
    Did they even use a control group?! And was it double blinded?
  - sundvor 4y ago
    “We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence-based medicine organized and participated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.” I'm still crying. :)
suresk 4y ago
> He discovered that a full 20% of the sample characterized as “healthy” weight had been in the overweight or obese category in the decade prior. When set apart, this group had a substantially worse health profile than those in the category whose weight had been stable. There are a few odd things about this approach. First, 20% of people in a healthy weight being previously overweight/obese? This seems high? Could there be reporting bias or other things here? I'm still trying to understand the full study, but it is odd that more people lost weight than gained weight, according to the numbers I'm seeing in it. Although that may be partially explained by the fact that it was limited to people 45 - 85 years old. Second, the methodology of taking anyone who was previously overweight/obese and is now healthy (weight-wise) into their own group and then attributing increases in mortality purely to weight seem suspect? There are a lot of things that can cause you to lose weight and lead to increased mortality that aren't related to weight, and those would be captured in here. The conclusions definitely make sense and "feel" right, at least directionally, I'm just a little confused about some of the methodology to get there.
- Izkata 4y ago
  > I'm still trying to understand the full study, but it is odd that more people lost weight than gained weight, according to the numbers I'm seeing in it. Although that may be partially explained by the fact that it was limited to people 45 - 85 years old. Don't people typically gain weight in that age range, the opposite of what would explain that?
  - ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
    Once you reach 65+ people tend to lose weight until they die. A lot of it is explained by muscle loss.

cscurmudgeon 4y ago

Reminds of the parachute study that was shared here recently: https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/02/breakthrough-research-reveals-parachutes-dont-prevent-death-when-jumping-from-a-plane/ https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/02/breakthrough-resea...

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
HPsquared 4y ago
I love the meta irony of this article, taking the (somewhat satirical) journal article and playing along as an example of overblown science journalism with the headline "Breakthrough research reveals parachutes don’t prevent death when jumping from a plane". It's beautiful....
- exfatloss 4y ago
  Did they even use a control group?! And was it double blinded?
- sundvor 4y ago
  “We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence-based medicine organized and participated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.” I'm still crying. :)

suresk 4y ago

> He discovered that a full 20% of the sample characterized as “healthy” weight had been in the overweight or obese category in the decade prior. When set apart, this group had a substantially worse health profile than those in the category whose weight had been stable. There are a few odd things about this approach. First, 20% of people in a healthy weight being previously overweight/obese? This seems high? Could there be reporting bias or other things here? I'm still trying to understand the full study, but it is odd that more people lost weight than gained weight, according to the numbers I'm seeing in it. Although that may be partially explained by the fact that it was limited to people 45 - 85 years old. Second, the methodology of taking anyone who was previously overweight/obese and is now healthy (weight-wise) into their own group and then attributing increases in mortality purely to weight seem suspect? There are a lot of things that can cause you to lose weight and lead to increased mortality that aren't related to weight, and those would be captured in here. The conclusions definitely make sense and "feel" right, at least directionally, I'm just a little confused about some of the methodology to get there.

Izkata 4y ago
> I'm still trying to understand the full study, but it is odd that more people lost weight than gained weight, according to the numbers I'm seeing in it. Although that may be partially explained by the fact that it was limited to people 45 - 85 years old. Don't people typically gain weight in that age range, the opposite of what would explain that?
- ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
  Once you reach 65+ people tend to lose weight until they die. A lot of it is explained by muscle loss.