title: Projecting the effect of changes in smoking and obesity on future life expectancy in the United States.
abstract: We estimate the effects of declining smoking and increasing obesity on mortality in the United States over the period 2010-2040. Data on cohort behavioral histories are integrated into these estimates. Future distributions of body mass indices are projected using transition matrices applied to the initial distribution in 2010. In addition to projections of current obesity, we project distributions of obesity when cohorts are age 25. To these distributions, we apply death rates by current and age-25 obesity status observed in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-2006. Estimates of the effects of smoking changes are based on observed relations between cohort smoking patterns and cohort death rates from lung cancer. We find that changes in both smoking and obesity are expected to have large effects on U.S. mortality. For males, the reductions in smoking have larger effects than the rise in obesity throughout the projection period. By 2040, male life expectancy at age 40 is expected to have gained 0.83 years from the combined effects. Among women, however, the two sets of effects largely offset one another throughout the projection period, with a small gain of 0.09 years expected by 2040.
authors.affiliation: Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, McNeil Building, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA, spreston@sas.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Samuel H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Preston
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stokes
authors.forename: Neil K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.forename: Bochen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000639:trends*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000401:mortality* / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology