Diet-Obesity Kills More Americans
Obesity Kills More Americans Than
Previously Thought: One in Five Americans, Black and White, Die from Obesity
Aug. 15, 2013 — Obesity is a lot more deadly than previously
thought. Across recent decades, obesity accounted for 18 percent of deaths
among Black and White Americans between the ages of 40 and 85, according to
scientists. This finding challenges the prevailing wisdom among scientists, which
puts that portion at around 5%."
Obesity
has dramatically worse health consequences than some recent reports have
led us to believe," says first author Ryan Masters, PhD, who conducted the
research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "We expect that obesity
will be responsible for an
increasing share of deaths in the United States and perhaps even lead to
declines in U.S. life expectancy."
While there have been signs that obesity is in decline for
some groups of young people, rates continue to be near historic highs. For the
bulk of children and adults who are already obese, the condition will likely
persist, wreaking damage over the course of their lives.
In older Americans, the rising toll of obesity is already
evident. Dr. Masters and his colleagues documented its increasing effect on mortality
in White men who died between the ages of 65 and 70 in the years 1986 to 2006.
Grade one obesity (body mass index of 30 to less than 35) accounted for about 3.5%
of deaths for those born between 1915 and 1919 -- a grouping known as a birth
cohort. For those born 10 years later, it accounted for about 5% of deaths.
Another 10 years later, it killed off
upwards of 7%.When the obesity epidemic hit in the 1980s, it
hit across all age groups, so older Americans have lived through it for a
relatively short period of time. But younger age
groups will be exposed to the full brunt for much longer
periods.
"A 5-year-old growing up today is living in an
environment where obesity is much more the norm than was the case for a
5-year-old a generation or two ago. Drink sizes are bigger, clothes are bigger,
and greater numbers of a child's peers are obese," explains co-author
Bruce Link, PhD, professor of epidemiology and sociomedical
sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public
Health. "And once someone is obese, it is very difficult to undo. So it
stands to reason that we won't see the worst of the epidemic until the current
generation of children grows old."
A New Way of Looking at a Growing Problem
This study is the first to account for differences in age,
birth cohort, sex, and race in analyzing Americans' risk for death from
obesity. "Past research in this area lumped together all Americans, but
obesity prevalence and its effect on mortality differ substantially based on
your race or ethnicity, how old you are, and when you were born,"
says Dr. Masters. "It's important for policy-makers to
understand that different groups experience obesity in different ways."
The researchers analyzed 19 waves of the National Health
Interview Survey linked to individual mortality records in the National Death
Index for the years 1986 to 2006, when the most recent data are available. They
focused on ages 40 to 85 in order to exclude accidental deaths, homicides, and
congenital conditions that are the leading causes of death for younger people.
The study builds on earlier research by Dr. Masters that found, contrary to
conventional wisdom, that
risk for death from obesity increases with age. The new study is also
influenced by previous work by co-authors Eric Reither, PhD, associate
professor at Utah State University, and Claire Yang, PhD, associate professor
at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, which showed significant
cohort differences in U.S. obesity rates.
Obesity's Varying Effects by Sex and Race
In the groups studied, Black women had the highest risk of
dying from obesity or being overweight at 27 percent, followed by White women
at 21 percent. Obesity in Black women is nearly twice that of White women.
White men fared better at 15%, and the lowest risk for dying from being obese
was 5%, for Black men. While White men and Black men have similar rates of
obesity, the effect of obesity on mortality is lower in Black men because it is
"crowded out" by other risk factors, from high rates of
cigarette smoking to challenging socioeconomic conditions.
There were insufficient data to make estimates for Asians, Hispanics, and other
groups due to the highly stratified nature of the methodology.
In sum, by using a new, more rigorous approach, the new
research shows that obesity is far more consequential than previously
recognized, that the impact of the epidemic is only beginning to be felt, and
that some population groups are affected much more powerfully than others.
Daniel Powers of the University of Texas at Austin and
Andrew E. Burger of Utah State University also contributed to the paper.
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