Height loss in middle-aged women linked to higher risk of early death - study

10 August 2021, 08:35 | Updated: 10 August 2021, 11:45

Height loss in middle-aged women has been linked to a higher risk of early death, according to a study.

Researchers based in Sweden and Denmark made the discovery, suggesting cardiovascular disease was a particular risk.

The study of more than 2,000 women showed that each centimetre drop in height meant between 14 per cent and 21 per cent greater odds of death from any cause, after adjusting for potential influential factors.

It was the first to report results on the effect of height loss on mortality in women followed from middle age, researchers said.

The particular association between height loss and stroke mortality had not been reported before either.

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Cardiovascular disease was the primary cause in 157 examples, including 37 cases of stroke, while 362 were due to non-cardiovascular disease causes.

However, the authors said that the low number of stroke deaths implied that results should be interpreted with some caution.

There were also other factors that could have influenced the findings such as participants having previously smoked or had medical treatments.

Data was analysed from two studies to come to the conclusions: the Swedish Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg (PPSWG), and women in the Danish arm of the MONICA project (Monitoring trends and determinants of cardiovascular disease).

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In the peer-reviewed study, published in the BMJ Open, researchers said: "Height loss during mid-life is a risk marker for earlier mortality in northern European women.

"Specifically the hazard of CVD (cardiovascular disease) mortality is increased in women with height loss, and the results suggested that stroke mortality may be a major contributor to the total CVD association.

"These findings suggest the need for increased attention to height loss to identify individuals at increased CVD risk.

"Moreover, regular physical activity may be beneficial not only in prevention of CVD, but also in prevention of height loss and thereby further contributing to CVD prevention."

People can start to lose height in their 40s, with the process - caused by shrinking of vertebral discs, spinal compression fractures and change in posture - speeding up in their 60s.