Two More Reasons to Avoid Obesity
Wed, February 10, 2010 at 03:00AM First, consider quality-of-life. Health-related quality-of-life measures can be used to calculate QALYs – quality-adjusted life-years, which provide a way of assessing the total burden of a health condition in a population. New York researchers have compared the estimated loss in QALYs presented by obesity and smoking for US adults from 1993 to 2008. Their study is reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
During the period in question, the proportion of smokers declined by 18.5% while the proportion of obese people increased by 85%. Smoking-related QALYs lost were stable, at 0.0438 QUALYs. During the same time, because of the increase in their number, the QALYs lost for the population studied were 0.0464. In other words, obesity now presents a greater detriment to our overall quality-of-life than smoking.
The second report, found in the journal Value in Health, was based on data from the USA and Germany. The researchers focused on waistline as a factor in health costs. Their databases comprised over 10,000 adults with body mass indexes (BMIs) between 20 and 35; the subjects were classified according to their BMI: healthy weight (20-25), overweight (25-30), and obese (30-35). The overweight and obese classes were further characterized as above or below ideal waistline circumference. Annual health costs were collected for low and high waistline subjects who were overweight or obese. These annual costs were 16% to 18% higher in Germany and 20% to 30% higher in the US for those with a high, compare to those with a low waistline measurement.
Both reports show the need for us to realize and accept the problems offered by the overweight/obesity epidemic, and to find ways to combat it (especially with regard to our waistlines!)
Reader Comments (1)
Quality of life is a toughy. Most people have the capability to do something about their obesity, it's whether they've got the tools to.