Researchers quantify obesity loss of life

Thursday July 14th, 2016

Being overweight shortens life expectancy by about a year, according to a major international study published today.

Researchers found that people with moderate obesity lose about three years of life expectancy - but the risk is greater for men than women, according to the report in The Lancet.

The findings come from an analysis of earlier studies involving nearly four million people in Europe, North America and other countries.

The researchers say that 1.3 billion adults are overweight globally and another 600 million are obese.

They found excess weight linked to increased risk of heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer.

Researcher Dr Emanuele Di Angelantonio, from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, said: "On average, overweight people lose about one year of life expectancy, and moderately obese people lose about three years of life expectancy.

“We also found that men who were obese were at much higher risk of premature death than obese women. This is consistent with previous observations that obese men have greater insulin resistance, liver fat levels, and diabetes risk than women.”

Fellow researcher Professor Sir Richard Peto, from Oxford University, said: “Obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of premature death in Europe and North America.

"But, overweight and obesity now cause about 1 in 7 of all premature deaths in Europe and 1 in 5 of all premature deaths in North America.”

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study shows the power of bringing together data on large populations of patients to answer important questions.

"The results show that being overweight does have a significant impact on your health and strengthen the arguments for public health measures to reduce obesity in our society.”

Lancet 14 July 2016 [abstract]

Tags: Diet & Food | Europe | Fitness | Heart Health | North America | UK News | World Health

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