Body Mass Index and Premature Mortality in Physically Heavily Working Men—A Ten-Year Follow-Up of 20,000 Construction Workers

Objective: Although obesity is clearly associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, health consequences of being mildly or moderately overweight are less clear in physically heavily working men. Methods: The association between body mass index (BMI) and mortality was assessed over a 10-year period in a cohort of 19,513 male construction workers, who underwent routine occupational health examination during 1986 to 1992. Results: Among never smokers normal and overweight men experienced similar mortality. Among smokers, we observed a strong U-shaped association between BMI and all-cause mortality, which was lowest for BMI levels between 25 and 35 kg/m2 after control for potential covariates. Conclusions: BMI levels commonly considered to reflect overweight may not necessarily be associated with increased mortality in physically heavily working men.

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