Multivariate prediction of total and cardiovascular mortality in an obese Polynesian population

The effects of body weight and blood pressure on the risk of total mortality and mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were examined in a prospective sample of 5,866 adult residents of American Samoa, a Polynesian population noted for exhibiting high levels of obesity. Data collected during 1975-76 were linked to mortality records from 1976 through 1981. In logistic regression models which did not include blood pressure, percent of desirable weight was an important risk factor for mortality from CVD, but it was not an important risk factor when diastolic blood pressure was included in the model. Percent of desirable weight was not related to mortality from all causes combined in either Samoan men or women. Age and diastolic blood pressure were predictors of total and CVD mortality in men and women. These results, in an obese population, suggest that body weight and obesity are not independently related to excess mortality in the very obese, although they may associate with high blood pressure. These results also suggest that relations between physiological characteristics and mortality may vary with cultural, genetic, or other factors not examined in this study.