Recent research has revealed that more than 80 million American adults are smokers, obese or both and are faced with an increased risk of poor health and an early death.
Data from a 2002 national health interview survey was used to estimate the proportion of adults in the United States who have one or both problems.The number of Americans who fall into both categories is about 9 million people and this would include a larger percentage of them being poor with very low education.
It has been revealed that about 41.5 percent of adults in the US are obese or smoke and about 4.7 percent smoke and are obese.
According to Cherly Healton, the head of the anti-tobacco organization American Legacy Foundation in Washington, ‘Obesity and cigarette smoking are primary risk factors for several chronic conditions and early death in a large number of people in the United States.’
The results of the research were published in the British Medical Journal. It showed that 23.5 percent of adults were obese and 22.7 percent smoked. The proportions of those who were obese as well as were smokers were higher than other racial or ethnic groups.
Smoking has been proved to be a leading cause of preventable death. In addition it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, respiratory problems as well as lung and other types of cancer.
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Healton and her colleagues have proposed that clinical trials should monitor the effects of programs which were aimed at simultaneous stopping smoking and weight control to document and respond to any unintended consequences.
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