Obesity deaths overstated
By HME News Staff
Updated Mon January 31, 2005
NEW YORK - A prominent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have overstated the number of obesity-related deaths in 2000 by as much as 20%, The Wall Street Journal reported in November.
The study was released in March and predicted that obesity would surpass tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death. The analysis of the study found that mathematical errors may have inflated the 2000 death toll attributed to obesity by 80,000, concluded the Journal after it reviewed report documents.
The CDC's chief of science, Dixie Snider, who is also leading the internal inquiry of the study, confirmed to the paper that the CDC will reduce its estimate of the number of deaths attributable to poor diet and lack of exercise, but he declined to say by how much, the paper said.
The study originally concluded that in 2000 there were nearly as many obesity-related deaths, at 400,000, as there were deaths related to tobacco use, at 435,000.
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