Obesity Poses as Great a Threat as Smoking

NEW YORK (United Press International, 2010) 

Obesity has become an equal, if not greater, contributor to illness and a shortened life as smoking, U.S. researchers found.

Haomiao Jia and Dr. Erica I. Lubetkin of Columbia University and The City College of New York calculated that the quality adjusted life years lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking.

The researchers used data from the 1993-2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which conducted interviews of more than 3.5 million individuals with annual interviews starting with 102,263 in 1993 and ending with 406,749 in 2008.

From 1993-2008, the proportion of smokers among U.S. adults declined 18.5 percent and smoking-related, quality adjusted life years lost were relatively stable at 0.0438 quality adjusted life years lost per population.

During this same period, the proportion of obese people increased 85 percent and this resulted in 0.0464 quality adjusted life years lost. Smoking had a bigger impact on deaths while obesity had a bigger impact on illness, the study found.

The study is to be published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.