Prof.Paula Lantz's response to my question regarding protective effects of obesity or being overweight against mortality for people over age 55.

Dear.colleagues.

Here is the response of Prof.Paula Lantz to my question:

Hi, Thanks for your interest in this work. My response is as follows:

We wrote the following in the paper we published with these results (Social Science & Medicine 2010; 70::1558-1566:

"It is plausible that obesity, net of physical activity, confers a protective effect among older adults. Prior research has found that obesity in older populations may afford some protection against health shocks or conditions that lead to frailty, wasting and other processes associated with senescence (Freedman et al., 2006; Janssen, 2007; Oreopoulos et al., 2008). Nonetheless, our results should not be interpreted to mean that obesity is not a significant public health problem or an important issue related to social disparities in morbidity and the costs of medical care. If the prevalence of obesity and morbid obesity continues to increase among children and young adults, especially among those in socially disadvantaged groups, so may its negativeimpact on future mortality and mortality disparities."