Almost 70% of SA elderly overweight

A majority of the elderly in SA are measured as overweight or obese‚ with poor nutrition contributing to potentially preventable health concerns.

Statistics SA revealed on Tuesday that almost seven in 10 elderly people (69.6%) in the country were found to be overweight on measured BMI‚ while 3.5% of those measured were underweight.

Among women‚ the majority were overweight or obese (77%) while among men just more than half (55.4%) were obese or overweight‚ according to the report.

Overall‚ there are more elderly from the black population group and the elderly are mainly living in Gauteng.

Overweight/obesity is more prevalent among whites.

“The elderly from the white population overall have almost four out of every five people being overweight/obese (79.3%)‚ and only about one in five being of normal weight (19.8%)‚” Stats SA said.

On a gender split‚ more elderly white men are overweight/obese at 82.3%.

All nine of SA’s provinces had high levels of the elderly being overweight/obese.

North West (59.3%) was the only province that had fewer than 60% of elderly being overweight or obese, but an alarming 12% of this province’s elderly were underweight.

Limpopo had the largest portion of elderly being of normal weight (36.6%) and the second-lowest proportion of their population overweight/obese at 61.5%.

The two provinces that had the highest levels of overweight/obese elderly were KwaZulu-Natal (77.5%) and the Western Cape (77.4%).

Contrary to the data‚ most of the over-60s did not see themselves as overweight – some even thought they were too skinny.

Stats SA found that in all nine provinces‚ at least 60% of the elderly perceived themselves as having normal weight.

Almost a third of the elderly in the Eastern Cape perceived themselves as being underweight‚ as did about one in five of the elderly in Mpumalanga.

The data was drawn from the SA Demographic and Health Survey 2016‚ the General Household Survey 2016 and the Mortality and Causes of Death 2016 report.

According to the SADHS and GHS‚ about half of the elderly are reported to have high blood pressure‚ with more women being hypertensive than men‚ Stats SA said.

The majority of the elderly are hypertensive as measured in the SADHS‚ but only half of them are taking medication.

Diabetes was reported in less than 20% of the elderly.

Stats SA noted‚ though‚ that the data shows that diabetes is the main underlying natural cause of death among the elderly‚ followed by cardiovascular diseases.