Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new estimate of the number of deaths caused by obesity. This estimate was published in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2005;293(15):1861-1867). The new estimate is 112,000 deaths per year which is significantly lower than a previous estimate of 365,000 deaths per year. The difference between the two estimates reflects the general difficulty associated with attributing deaths to obesity, poor nutrition and physical inactivity and specific differences in methodologies. For example, the most recent estimate used age-specific mortality rates while the earlier estimate did not. In commenting on the new estimates, William H. Dietz, MD, PhD, director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at CDC, said, “Obesity was used as a surrogate measure of poor nutrition and inactivity. However, it seems likely that the true disease burdens attributable to poor nutrition and inactivity are likely to exceed those of obesity.”
In addition, the earlier estimate was based largely on the health risks that people experienced in the 1970’s. Since then, there has been a great deal of improvement in the control of both heart disease and high blood pressure. The new, lower estimates reflect these advances in life-saving interventions for obesity-related diseases. However, obesity remains a concern because overweight rates have doubled among children and tripled among adolescents, and this greatly increases the number of years over which they are exposed to the health risks associated with obesity.
While there is discussion concerning the best way to estimate the true impact of overweight and obesity on our society, there is still a strong scientific consensus that obesity significantly increases the risk of serious chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and some cancers and that these diseases contribute to overall mortality. In response to the conflicting reports, CDC recently held a press conference to reconfirm its commitment to support obesity prevention efforts. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, stated, “We need to be absolutely explicitly clear about one thing: obesity and overweight are critically important health threats in this country.”
