Adiposity as Compared with Physical Activity in Predicting Mortality among Women

Whether higher levels of physical activity can counteract the elevated risk of death associated with adiposity is controversial.

We examined the associations of the body-mass index and physical activity with death among 116,564 women who, in 1976, were 30 to 55 years of age and free of known cardiovascular disease and cancer.

During 24 years of follow-up, 10,282 deaths occurred--2370 from cardiovascular disease, 5223 from cancer, and 2689 from other causes. Mortality rates increased monotonically with higher body-mass-index values among women who had never smoked (P for trend