Trends in Quality-Adjusted Life-Years Lost Contributed by Smoking and Obesity: Does the Burden of Obesity Overweigh the Burden of Smoking?

This Columbia University and the City College of New York study, published in the January 2010 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, suggests that between the years 1993 and 2008, obesity trumped smoking as a risk to quality of life.

Quality of life was determined by factoring quantitative, qualitative, self-reported and independently assessed measures of health-related quality of life. These measures were compiled and converted to a single number. The study found that in 1993, smoking had a more negative impact in the U.S. than obesity. Due to the rising percentage of the obese population, and a drop in the numbers of smokers, however, the years between 1993 and 2008 saw a more substantial negative impact on quality-of-life from obesity. Smoking is still associated with higher mortality rates, but obesity is associated with higher morbidity rates.

Read the article.