Curie Brief
Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
News
Being overweight or obese at the time of a dementia diagnosis is linked to a meaningfully lower risk of death, according to a new study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Researchers analyzed over 4,500 U.S. adults and found that class I obesity was tied to a 27% lower mortality risk compared to normal weight. Experts caution the findings are observational and shouldn't prompt patients to gain weight.
A new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease found that people diagnosed with dementia who were overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis had a significantly lower risk of dying compared to those with normal weight. Researchers from NYU analyzed data from more than 4,500 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, spanning diagnoses from 1998 to 2022.
The team carefully ruled out common sources of bias — including reverse causality (weight loss due to dementia) and survivor bias — and found the protective association held up across multiple analyses. Researchers speculate that greater nutritional reserves may help explain the survival benefit, given that eating difficulties are a known contributor to higher mortality in dementia.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: While the findings shouldn't be used to encourage weight gain, they offer important prognostic insights and underscore the critical role of nutrition in dementia care — a factor clinicians may need to prioritize more actively.
