Obese older women more likely to be frail

NEW YORK, Jul 07, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A U.S. study finds obese older women are more likely to be frail.

The research was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Researchers from the Women's Health and Aging Studies group examined data from 599 women.

Those with body-mass indexes classified as overweight were likely to exhibit pre-frailty while those classified as obese showed both pre-frailty and frailty.

Frail women were more likely to suffer from diabetes, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular occlusive disease and osteoarthritis.