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Ten years' follow-up of mortality of 1.7 million persons aged 15 years or more with measured body weight and height demonstrates a consistent correlation between body mass index and mortality. The risk function is an asymmetrical U-function. This shape makes the determination of an optimum very uncertain. The two tails in the distribution of the body mass index show marked differences as to the causes of death: the lower tail is characterized by tuberculosis, lung cancer, obstructive lung diseases, and the upper tail by cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and (for males) colon cancer.
Hans Th. Waaler (Mon,) studied this question.