Approaches to the analysis of fatness changes and continuity

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Abstract
As shown in repeat fatfold and weight measurements of 2,333 18.5–45 year old adults from the Tecumseh (Mich) Community Health Study, fractionation into fatness groupings ("lean,” “medium” and “obese") provides more detailed and useful information on individual changes in fatness than is revealed by the simple correlation (r). So analyzed, it can be shown that the majority of lean individuals of both sexes remain lean over nearly a decade but that a small proportion of the initially lean (about 12 percent in females) may actually become obese. Conversely, while initially obese individuals tend to remain fatter than the initially lean or the initially medium, a surprisingly large proportion (68 percent) of obese males are less than obese some ten years later. These more detailed analyses further suggest the possibility of a hard‐core “intractable” obese as contrasted with a labile or transient obesity‐grouping, a possibility of clinical interest and population relevance.

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