Obesity categories linked to fewer disease-free years in UK adults
At age 50, estimated disease-free years were 22.0 for men with clinical obesity versus 28.5 for men without obesity or impaired organ function.
Limit: It excluded people who already had major chronic diseases at enrollment
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In an observational study of 428,878 UK Biobank adults free of major chronic diseases at enrollment, researchers estimated years of life without heart and blood vessel disease, diabetes, cancer or dementia. They used the 2025 Lancet framework to group participants into four categories: no obesity with or without impaired organ function, and obesity labeled preclinical or clinical. They estimated life expectancy separately for men and women.
At age 50, preclinical obesity was associated with 2.6 fewer disease-free years in men and 2.4 fewer in women, compared with no obesity and no impaired organ function. Clinical obesity was associated with 6.5 fewer years in men and 7.0 fewer in women. The associations persisted across socioeconomic groups. Differences were smaller at ages 60 and 70.
Why it matters
Disease-free life expectancy addresses how much of later life people may spend without major chronic illness, a question relevant to planning healthcare resources.
Caveats
This observational analysis used life-table estimates and could not establish cause and effect. It excluded people who already had major chronic diseases at enrollment, and the findings were reported in a congress abstract.
The paper
2nd Hospital of Tianjin Medical University
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
