Body mass index and health among Union Army veterans: 1891-1905

We performed a longitudinal analysis to study the association between earlier BMI as well as weight change and later development of diseases. The results suggest that, as a predictor of diseases, the explanatory power of BMI becomes lower the farther into the future we try to predict. Compared with those who maintained the same weight, veterans who gained weight were associated with a lower risk of being diagnosed with gastrointestinal diseases at their second examination.