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The Health Costs of Being Fat
BusinessWeek June 25, 2001 page 30
online @ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_26/c3738039.htm#B3738041

Ask Americans which behavioral problem most threatens their physical and economic health and they are likely to answer smoking or drinking. According to a study in the British journal Public Health, however, the behavior leading to obesity--poor eating habits and lack of exercise--may well represent a larger potential threat to the public's health and well-being.

The study by Rand Corp. researchers Roland Sturm and Kenneth Wells is the first to compare the negative health effects of obesity with those of smoking, heavy drinking, and poverty. Based on a nationwide survey of some 10,000 people, it finds that 36% of adult Americans are overweight (20% to 30% above normal) and 23% are obese (more than 30% heavier than normal). By contrast, only about 20% of adults are daily smokers, and 6% are problem drinkers.

More important, the results of the study indicate the health risks of obesity are actually as great and often considerably greater than those caused by either smoking, heavy drinking, or poverty. That is, obesity is associated with just as many or more chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, heart disease, and arthritis, and its impact on a person's ability to perform common tasks such as climbing stairs or carrying packages is at least as great.

Can the obesity epidemic be stopped? Economists have related the rise in obesity to changing incentives--the declining cost of food, the shift to more sedentary employment. While countering these incentives is difficult, the authors note that public education and other initiatives have helped to dramatically reduce the incidence of smoking in recent decades. It's time, they believe, to uncork similar efforts to combat obesity.

Journal of Public Health does not have the latest Table of Contents on-line 6/25/01