Poor
diet, inactivity underlying factors for leading killers.
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Inactive Americans are eating themselves
to death at an alarming rate, their unhealthy habits fast
approaching tobacco as the top underlying preventable cause
of death, a government study found.
Obesity and inactivity increase the risks for some of the
top U.S. killers: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.
In
2000, poor diet including obesity and physical inactivity
caused 400,000 U.S. deaths -- more than 16 percent of all
deaths and the No. 2 killer. That compares with 435,000 for
tobacco, or 18 percent, as the top underlying killer.
The gap between the two is substantially narrower than in
1990, when poor diet and inactivity caused 300,000 deaths,
14 percent, compared with 400,000 for tobacco, or 19 percent,
says a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
"This is tragic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC's director
and an author of the study. "Our worst fears were confirmed."
"It's going to overtake tobacco" if the trend continues, Gerberding
said. "At CDC, we're going to do everything we can to prevent
it," she said. "Obesity has got to be job No. 1 for us in
terms of chronic diseases."
The researchers analyzed data from 2000 for the leading causes
of death and for those preventable factors known to contribute
to them. Like tobacco, obesity and inactivity increase the
risks for the top three killers: heart disease, cancer and
cerebrovascular ailments including strokes. Obesity and inactivity
also strongly increase the risk of diabetes, the sixth leading
cause of death.
The results appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American
Medical Association.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials discussed
the findings Tuesday at a Washington news briefing where they
announced a public service ad campaign using humor to get
Americans to pay attention to the dangers of inactivity and
obesity.
"I am working very hard at CDC to walk the talk," Gerberding
said in a telephone interview, noting efforts the agency has
made at CDC offices to improve the health of its 9,000-plus
employees.
They include putting music, lights and fresh paint jobs in
stairwells to encourage employees to use the stairs for exercise.
Also, besides the current indoor smoking ban, CDC will ban
smoking from outside all of its buildings starting later this
year.
In order, the leading causes of death in 2000 were: Heart
disease, cancer, strokes and other cerebrovascular disease,
chronic lower respiratory disease, unintentional injuries,
diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease, kidney
disease, and septicemia.
The underlying preventable causes of death were, in order:
tobacco, poor diet and physical inactivity, alcohol, microbial
agents, toxic agents, motor vehicles, firearms, sexual behavior
and illegal drug use. Together, these accounted for about
half of all 2.4 million U.S. deaths in 2000.
An editorial accompanying the study in JAMA says national
leadership and policy changes are needed to help curb preventable
causes of death.
"After all, wisdom is knowing what to do next. Virtue is doing
it," said editorial authors Drs. J. Michael McGinnis and William
Foege. McGinnis is with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
and Foege is with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Poor
diet, inactivity underlying factors for leading killers.
