IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v51y2014i1p27-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Projecting the Effect of Changes in Smoking and Obesity on Future Life Expectancy in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Preston
  • Andrew Stokes
  • Neil Mehta
  • Bochen Cao

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. Copyright The Author(s) 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Preston & Andrew Stokes & Neil Mehta & Bochen Cao, 2014. "Projecting the Effect of Changes in Smoking and Obesity on Future Life Expectancy in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(1), pages 27-49, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:51:y:2014:i:1:p:27-49
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-013-0246-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13524-013-0246-9
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13524-013-0246-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Willets, R. C., 2004. "The Cohort Effect: Insights and Explanations," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 833-877, October.
    2. Charles L. Baum & Shin-Yi Chou, 2011. "The Socio-Economic Causes of Obesity," NBER Working Papers 17423, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Andrew Fenelon & Samuel Preston, 2012. "Estimating Smoking-Attributable Mortality in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 797-818, August.
    4. Samir Soneji & Gary King, 2012. "Statistical Security for Social Security," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 1037-1060, August.
    5. Neil K. Mehta & Virginia W. Chang, 2011. "Secular Declines in the Association Between Obesity and Mortality in the United States," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 37(3), pages 435-451, September.
    6. Ruhm Christopher J, 2007. "Current and Future Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity in the United States," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-28, September.
    7. Samuel Preston & Haidong Wang, 2006. "Sex mortality differences in The United States: The role of cohort smoking patterns," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(4), pages 631-646, November.
    8. Anirban Basu, 2010. "Forecasting Distribution of Body Mass Index in the United States: Is There More Room for Growth?," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 30(3), pages 1-11, May.
    9. Samir Soneji & Gary King, 2011. "The future of death in America," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(1), pages 1-38.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthew Calver, 2016. "Measuring the Appropriate Outcomes for Better Decision-Making: A Framework to Guide the Analysis of Health Policy," CSLS Research Reports 2016-03, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    2. Tobias Vogt & Alyson van Raalte & Pavel Grigoriev & Mikko Myrskylä, 2017. "The German East-West Mortality Difference: Two Crossovers Driven by Smoking," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 1051-1071, June.
    3. F. Peters & J. P. Mackenbach & W. J. Nusselder, 2016. "Does the Impact of the Tobacco Epidemic Explain Structural Changes in the Decline of Mortality?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 687-702, December.
    4. Thomas, Kelsey L. & Dobis, Elizabeth A. & McGranahan, David A., 2024. "The Nature of the Rural-Urban Mortality Gap," Economic Information Bulletin 341639, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Joseph T. Lariscy & Robert A. Hummer & Richard G. Rogers, 2018. "Cigarette Smoking and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Adult Mortality in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1855-1885, October.
    6. Inwood, Kris & Oxley, Les & Roberts, Evan, 2022. "The mortality risk of being overweight in the twentieth century: Evidence from two cohorts of New Zealand men," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Alberto Palloni & Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, 2017. "The Impact of Obesity on Adult Mortality Assessment of Estimates with Applications," Working Papers WR-1193, RAND Corporation.
    8. David McCarthy, 2021. "80 will be the new 70: Old‐age mortality postponement in the United States and its likely effect on the finances of the OASI program," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(2), pages 381-412, June.
    9. John Bongaarts, 2014. "Trends in Causes of Death in Low-Mortality Countries: Implications for Mortality Projections," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(2), pages 189-212, June.
    10. Tobias C. Vogt & Alyson A. van Raalte & Pavel Grigoriev & Mikko Myrskylä, 2016. "German East-West mortality difference: two cross-overs driven by smoking," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2016-004, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    11. Kulhánová, Ivana & Hoffmann, Rasmus & Judge, Ken & Looman, Caspar W.N. & Eikemo, Terje A. & Bopp, Matthias & Deboosere, Patrick & Leinsalu, Mall & Martikainen, Pekka & Rychtaříková, Jitka & Wojtyniak,, 2014. "Assessing the potential impact of increased participation in higher education on mortality: Evidence from 21 European populations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 142-149.
    12. Alberto Palloni & Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, 2017. "The Impact of Obesity on Adult Mortality: Assessment of Estimates with Applications," Working Papers 2017-044, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Samuel H. Preston & Andrew Stokes & Neil K. Mehta & Bochen Cao, 2012. "Projecting the Effect of Changes in Smoking and Obesity on Future Life Expectancy in the United States," NBER Working Papers 18407, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jessica Ho & Irma Elo, 2013. "The Contribution of Smoking to Black-White Differences in U.S. Mortality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 545-568, April.
    3. Samir Soneji & Gary King, 2012. "Statistical Security for Social Security," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 1037-1060, August.
    4. F. Peters & J. P. Mackenbach & W. J. Nusselder, 2016. "Does the Impact of the Tobacco Epidemic Explain Structural Changes in the Decline of Mortality?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 687-702, December.
    5. Michael Murphy, 2010. "Reexamining the Dominance of Birth Cohort Effects on Mortality," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 365-390, June.
    6. David McCarthy, 2021. "80 will be the new 70: Old‐age mortality postponement in the United States and its likely effect on the finances of the OASI program," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(2), pages 381-412, June.
    7. Adrian E. Raftery & Nevena Lalic & Patrick Gerland, 2014. "Joint probabilistic projection of female and male life expectancy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(27), pages 795-822.
    8. Joseph T. Lariscy & Robert A. Hummer & Richard G. Rogers, 2018. "Cigarette Smoking and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Adult Mortality in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1855-1885, October.
    9. Becky Wade & Joseph Lariscy & Robert Hummer, 2013. "Racial/Ethnic and Nativity Patterns of U.S. Adolescent and Young Adult Smoking," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(3), pages 353-371, June.
    10. Jeffrey T. Howard & P. Johnelle Sparks, 2016. "The Effects of Allostatic Load on Racial/Ethnic Mortality Differences in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(4), pages 421-443, August.
    11. Enrique Acosta & Alyson van Raalte, 2019. "APC curvature plots: Displaying nonlinear age-period-cohort patterns on Lexis plots," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(42), pages 1205-1234.
    12. Samir Soneji & Gary King, 2011. "The future of death in America," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(1), pages 1-38.
    13. Tobias Vogt & Alyson van Raalte & Pavel Grigoriev & Mikko Myrskylä, 2017. "The German East-West Mortality Difference: Two Crossovers Driven by Smoking," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 1051-1071, June.
    14. Michael Murphy, 2010. "Detecting year‐of‐birth mortality patterns with limited data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(4), pages 915-920, October.
    15. Stephen Richards, 2010. "Author's response," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(4), pages 920-924, October.
    16. Dorota Toczydlowska & Gareth W. Peters & Man Chung Fung & Pavel V. Shevchenko, 2017. "Stochastic Period and Cohort Effect State-Space Mortality Models Incorporating Demographic Factors via Probabilistic Robust Principal Components," Risks, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-77, July.
    17. Nadine Ouellette & Magali Barbieri & John R. Wilmoth, 2014. "Period-Based Mortality Change: Turning Points in Trends since 1950," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(1), pages 77-106, March.
    18. Alois Stutzer & Armando N. Meier, 2016. "Limited Self‐control, Obesity, and the Loss of Happiness," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(11), pages 1409-1424, November.
    19. Julian M. Alston & Joanna P. MacEwan & Abigail M. Okrent, 2016. "Effects of U.S. Public Agricultural R&D on U.S. Obesity and its Social Costs," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 492-520.
    20. Brian L. Rostron & Cindy M. Chang & Brittny C. Davis Lynn & Chunfeng Ren & Esther Salazar & Bridget K. Ambrose, 2022. "The contribution of smoking-attributable mortality to differences in mortality and life expectancy among US African-American and white adults, 2000–2019," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(31), pages 905-918.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:51:y:2014:i:1:p:27-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.