IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2011.300219_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contribution of obesity to international differences in life expectancy

Author

Listed:
  • Preston, S.H.
  • Stokes, A.

Abstract

Objectives. The United States has the highest prevalence of obesity and one of the lowest life expectancies among high-income countries. We investigated the relationship between these 2 phenomena. Methods. We estimated the fraction of deaths attributable to obesity by country, age, and sex and reestimated life tables after removing these deaths. To allow for a possible secular decline in obesity risks, we employed alternative risks from a more recent period. Results. In our baseline analysis, obesity reduced US life expectancy at age 50 years in 2006 by 1.54 years (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.37, 1.93) for women and by 1.85 years (95% CI=1.62, 2.10) for men. Removing the effects of obesity reduced the US shortfall by 42% (95% CI=36, 48) for women and 67% (95% CI=57, 76) for men, relative to countries with higher life expectancies. Using more recently recorded risk data, we estimated that differences in obesity still accounted for a fifth to a third of the shortfall. Conclusions. The high prevalence of obesity in the United States contributes substantially to its poor international ranking in longevity.

Suggested Citation

  • Preston, S.H. & Stokes, A., 2011. "Contribution of obesity to international differences in life expectancy," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(11), pages 2137-2143.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2011.300219_5
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300219
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300219
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300219?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beckfield, Jason & Bambra, Clare, 2016. "Shorter lives in stingier states: Social policy shortcomings help explain the US mortality disadvantage," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 30-38.
    2. Rodrigo R. Soares & Rudi Rocha & Michel Szklo, 2021. "American Delusion: Life Expectancy and Welfare in the US from an International Perspective," Working Papers 13, Instituto de Estudos para Políticas de Saúde.
    3. Sangeeta Bansal & David Zilberman, 2020. "Macrorelationship between average life expectancy and prevalence of obesity: Theory and evidence from global data," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(3), pages 403-427, May.
    4. Dmitri A. Jdanov & Vladimir M. Shkolnikov & Alyson A. van Raalte & Evgeny M. Andreev, 2017. "Decomposing Current Mortality Differences Into Initial Differences and Differences in Trends: The Contour Decomposition Method," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(4), pages 1579-1602, August.
    5. Bansal, Sangeeta & Zilberman, David, 2016. "Does health care expenditure counter adverse effects of obesity on health: Evidence from global data," 2017 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 6-8, 2017, Chicago, Illinois 250115, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Alberto Palloni & Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, 2017. "The Impact of Obesity on Adult Mortality Assessment of Estimates with Applications," Working Papers WR-1193, RAND Corporation.
    7. Shivani Gupta & Sangeeta Bansal, "undated". "Overnutrition and Risk of Diabetes: A Micro Data Analysis for India," Centre for International Trade and Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Discussion Papers 19-04, Centre for International Trade and Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
    8. Alberto Palloni & Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, 2017. "The Impact of Obesity on Adult Mortality: Assessment of Estimates with Applications," Working Papers 2017-044, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    9. Nikoletta Vidra & Maarten J. Bijlsma & Fanny Janssen, 2018. "Impact of Different Estimation Methods on Obesity-Attributable Mortality Levels and Trends: The Case of The Netherlands," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-11, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2011.300219_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.