Obesity overtakes smoking as health burden in US

The morbidity-mortality curves for smoking and obesity in the US have crossed as the latter appears to have become the greater health threat, at least as measured by quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) lost, suggests an analysis published online January 5, 2010 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The prevalence of smoking the US declined 18.5% from 1993 to 2008, with most of the loss occurring in the past six years;during the same period, the proportion of obese people (body-mass index>30 kg/m²) rose by a steady 85%, according to the analysis byDr Haomiao Jia(Columbia University, New York, NY) andDr Erica ILubetkin(City College of New York, NY), slated for the journal's February 2010 issue.

The group's data came from theBehavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System(BRFSS), "the largest ongoing state-based health survey of US adults,"and theNational Health Interview Survey(NHIS).