Obesity and Midlife Performance: A Cross‐Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis of Women in the Menarche‐To‐ PreMenopause Study
Authors' conclusion
Weight gain from early to mid-adulthood was associated with worse performance on the chair rise and standing balance tests in midlife
Study context
- Population
- Women from the Menarche-to-PreMenopause Study; performance tests at age 41–48; self-reported weight and height across eight surveys from ages 18–23 to 40–45
- Participants
- 499 women
- Exposure
- High-Increasing vs Normal-Increasing body mass index (BMI) trajectory
- Outcome
- Worse performance (lowest tertile) on handgrip strength, chair rise and standing balance tests
- Follow-up
- Age 41-48
Methodological detailsgroup-based trajectory modelling
- Group-based trajectory modelling
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Higher prevalence, worse chair rise
≈40%
95% CI 9%–84%P = 0.01
High-Increasing
Higher prevalence, worse standing balance
≈40%
95% CI 10%–84%P = 0.008
High-Increasing
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Higher annual weight gain percentage and worse standing balance
| PR (95% CI) | P value | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Higher annual weight gain percentage | 1.21 (1.06–1.38) | P = 0.004 | |
| 0.512Prevalence ratio (log scale) |
Midlife obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²), high-risk waist circumference (WC) (≥ 80 cm) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (≥ 0.8) and worse chair rise and standing balance · age 41-48
- Associated with higher prevalence of worse performance, prevalence ratio (PRs)
- 1.41 to 1.55
Original publication
Obesity and Midlife Performance: A Cross‐Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis of Women in the Menarche‐To‐ PreMenopause Study. Diabetes Obes Metab. Published 14 September 2026. doi:10.
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