Life Years Lost Associated with Obesity-Related Diseases for U.S. Non-Smoking Adults

Abstract

The objectives of this paper are to predict life years lost associated with obesity-related diseases (ORDs) for U.S. non-smoking adults, and to examine the relationship between those ORDs and mortality. Data from the National Health Interview Survey, 1997–2000, were used. We employed mixed proportional hazard models to estimate the association between those ORDs and mortality and used simulations to project life years lost associated with the ORDs. We found that obesity-attributable comorbidities are associated with large decreases in life years and increases in mortality rates. The life years lost associated with ORDs is more marked for younger adults than older adults, for blacks than whites, for males than females, and for the more obese than the less obese. Using U.S. non-smoking adults aged 40 to 49 years as an example to illustrate percentage of the life years lost associated with ORDs, we found that the mean life years lost associated with ORDs for U.S. non-smoking black males aged 40 to 49 years with a body mass index above 40 kg/m2 was 5.43 years, which translates to a 7.5% reduction in total life years. White males of the same age range and same degree of obesity lost 5.23 life years on average – a 6.8% reduction in total life years, followed by black females (5.04 years, a 6.5% reduction in life years), and white females (4.7 years, a 5.8% reduction in life years). Overall, ORDs increased chances of dying and lessened life years by 0.2 to 11.7 years depending on gender, race, BMI classification, and age.

Racial Differences in Adipose Tissue Distribution and Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer among Men Undergoing Radiotherapy

“…However, despite this reduced visceral adiposity, we found that visceral adipose tissue mass was more strongly associated with increased risk of aggressive PC in black men. While this finding may appear counterintuitive, it is noteworthy that despite lower prevalence of visceral obesity on a population level, black men actually have increased risk of visceral obesity-associated comorbidities, including coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke and diabetes, relative to their white counterparts [12, 13]. As such, the relationship between lower prevalence of visceral obesity but yet higher rates of visceral obesity-related comorbidities in black men mirrors the relationship between lower levels of visceral obesity but yet higher rates of aggressive PC in black men.…”

“…We hypothesized that visceral obesity would be associated with increased risk of aggressive PC and that racial differences in adipose tissue distribution would modify this association. Specifically, we hypothesized that there would be a stronger association between visceral obesity and increased risk of aggressive PC in black men, given the higher prevalence of obesity-associated comorbidities in this racial group [12, 13]. …”

What Does Self-rated Health Mean? Changes and Variations in the Association of Obesity with Objective and Subjective Components Of Self-rated Health

“…Past research shows clear associations between weight and poor physical health, including the acquisition of chronic conditions (Bray 2004, Lavie, Milani and Ventura 2009, Must et al 1999, Stein and Colditz 2004), greater reliance on prescription drugs to manage health conditions (Chang and Lauderdale 2009, Egan, Zhao and Axon 2010), and lower life expectancy (Chang, Pollack and Colditz 2013). However, the linkage between obesity and poor physical health is likely to vary by age, birth cohort, and time period.…”

Incidence and Outcomes of Chemotherapy and Radiation in Morbidly Obese Patients with Locally Advanced Lung and Esophageal Cancers: A Single-Institution Experience

“…This focus on patients with this BMI was prompted by the fact that the recent chemotherapy dosing guideline from the American Society of Clinical Oncology had outlined a gap in clinical data from this group of patients, as discussed above, and by well-accepted definitions of morbid obesity. 7,8 Each patient's medical record was reviewed for patient-and cancer-related demographics, including baseline body surface area as calculated with methodology from Gehan and George, 9 baseline comorbidities, performance score, hemoglobin and albumin levels, type and dose of chemotherapy administered, dose of radiation administered, the number and type of unplanned hospitalizations that occurred within 30 days of completion of concomitant chemotherapy and radiation, other cancer treatment rendered (eg, surgical extirpation of the tumor), and date of patient's last follow-up or death. Date of cancer recurrence was not captured as monitoring for recurrent disease varied widely within this small cohort, thus making such data difficult to interpret.…”