Table 2.

Relative Risk Estimates^* of the Associations Between Selected Potential Confounders and Death in Elderly Populations from the Medical Literature.

	Potential confounder variables
	Obesity (BMI ≥ 30)	Smoking (current vs. never)	ADL score (≥ 1 points)	Cognitive impairment (yes vs. no)	Rosow-Breslau (≥1 impairments)
EPESE studies ^†			3.70		1.37
Branch et al. ^‡			3.66
Ramos et al. ^§			3.00
Corrada et al. ^∥	1.12
Freedman et al. ^¶	1.15
Hu et al. ^¥	1.69
Doll et al. ^β		2.50
Dewey et al. ^Ψ				2.63
Mean	1.32	2.50	3.45	2.63	1.37

In case of conflicting literature estimates the mean estimate was used.

^†

From the Duke and Iowa Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE), 10,297 community-dwelling adults 65 years and older.²⁸ The relative rate estimate of 3.7 for ADL score is the average estimate of the odds ratios for East Boston (4.0), Iowa (4.2), and New Haven (3.0, see Table 2 of original paper). The relative rate of 1.37 for the Rosow-Breslau Score is an estimate from the curves on Figure 3 of the original paper.

^‡

From a prospective study on 1,625 community-dwelling elderly (age 65+) in Massachusetts, Table 2.²⁹

^§

From a sample of 1,667 older (age 65+) urban residents in Brazil, Table 2.³⁰

^∥

From a sample of 13,978 elderly residents in a retirement community in California, Table 2.³¹

^¶

From a nationwide US cohort of 83,744 radiologic technologists aged 55+.³² The relative risk of 1.15 was calculated from data provided in Table 3 of original paper.

^¥

From a cohort of 116,564 female registered nurses in the US.³³ Relative risk of 1.69 was calculated from exposure and death data provided in Table 3 of original article.

^β

From the 50-year longitudinal study of 34,439 male British doctors.³⁴ Relative risk of 2.50 was calculated as the average from the mortality ratio of doctors aged 65-74 years (2.7) and mortality ratio of doctors aged 75-84 years (2.2), provided in Table 5 of original paper.

^Ψ

From a review of the available literature on cognitive impairment and mortality in community-dwelling elderly (age 65+), Table 4.³⁵