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Peter Muennig, MD, MPH, Erica Lubetkin, MD, MPH, Haomiao Jia, PhD and Peter Franks, MD

Peter Muennig is with the Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY. Erica Lubetkin is with the Department of Community Health and Social Medicine, City University of New York Medical School. Haomiao Jia is with the Department of Community Medicine, Mercer School of Medicine, Macon, Ga. Peter Franks is with the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, Davis.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Peter Muennig, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 600 W 168th St, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10032 (e-mail: pm124{at}columbia.edu).

Objectives. We estimated the burden of disease in the United States attributable to obesity by gender, with life expectancy, quality-adjusted life expectancy, years of life lost annually, and quality-adjusted life years lost annually as outcome measures.

Methods. We obtained burden of disease estimates for adults falling into the following body-mass index categories: normal weight (23 to <25), overweight (25 to <30), and obese ( 30). We analyzed the 2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to obtain health-related quality-of-life scores and the 1990–1992 National Health Interview Survey linked to National Death Index data through the end of 1995 for mortality.

Results. Overweight men and women lost 270 000 and 1.8 million quality-adjusted life years, respectively, relative to their normal-weight counterparts. Obese men and women lost 1.9 million and 3.4 million quality-adjusted life years, respectively, per year. Much of the burden of disease among overweight and obese women arose from lower health-related quality of life and late life mortality.

Conclusions. Relative to men, women suffer a disproportionate burden of disease attributable to overweight and obesity, mostly because of differences in health-related quality of life.

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