In another new study on obesity, the toll of excess weight on Americans health and quality of life was reported to have overtaken that of smoking, even though tobacco still poses a greater mortality threat. The analysis of 15 years of public-health data concluded that by 2008, the obese were losing more quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) through disability and limitations on activity. That contrasts with 1993, when the QALYs lost to obesity were far behind the toll of smoking.
As a result of the increasing prevalence of obesity, the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the contribution of obesityrelated QALYs lost increased consistently and had increased by 127% in 2008, slightly more than smoking did.