The total health burden of obesity has surpassed the total health impact of smoking, according to the Department of Biostatistics at the Mailman School of Public Health and School of Nursing at Columbia University in New York City.
When the survey started, in 1993, smoking was by far the leading cause of preventable death and disease. But by the study’s conclusion, in 2008, obesity had tipped the scales—increasing in prevalence by 85 percent—to become the primary cause of preventable illnesses and poor health-related quality of life, something that public health officials have long predicted. The results are tabulated from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. (pi)
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