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The role of obesity in exceptionally slow US mortality improvement

2018; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 115; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.1716802115

1091-6490

Samuel H. Preston, Yana C. Vierboom, Andrew Stokes,

Climate Change and Health Impacts

Significance Some have speculated that the rising prevalence of obesity may explain why the rate of mortality improvement in the United States has declined relative to other wealthy countries. This paper estimates that rising body mass index (BMI) has reduced the annual rate of improvement in US death rates between 1988 and 2011 by more than half a percentage point—equivalent to a 23% relative reduction in the rate of mortality decline—a large amount by international standards. The increase in BMI has reduced life expectancy at age 40 by 0.9 years in 2011 and accounted for 186,000 excess deaths that year. Rising BMI has prevented the United States from enjoying the full benefits of factors working to improve mortality.