Obesity is now a bigger cause of deaths in Scotland than smoking, according to new research.
Since 2014, obesity and excess body fat has been a higher contributor of deaths than smoking in both Scotland and England, research published in the BMC Public Health journal has shown.
The authors, from Glasgow University, analysed data collected between 2003 and 2017 as part of the Health Surveys for England and Scottish Health Surveys of 192,239 adults across England and Scotland. The respondents were 50 years old on average.
READ MORE: Bid to curb unhealthy food marketing as cake and biscuit snacking soars in Scotland during lockdown
The team found that between 2003 and 2017, deaths attributable to smoking decreased from 23.1% to 19.4%.
In the same period, deaths attributed to obesity and excess body fat have increased from 17.9% to 23.1%, with the overtake occurring in 2014.
Jill Pell, who was one of the authors of the article, said: “For several decades smoking has been a major target of public health interventions as it is a leading cause of avoidable deaths.
“As a result, the prevalence of smoking has fallen in the UK. At the same time the prevalence of obesity has increased.
“Our research indicates that, since 2014, obesity and excess body fat may have contributed to more deaths in England and Scotland than smoking.”
However, the researchers found that while obesity was likely to cause more deaths in older adults, smoking was still more likely to contribute to deaths in younger adults.
The data showed that among those aged 65 and over and 45-64 respectively, obesity and excess body fat contributed to 3.5% and 3.4% more estimated deaths than smoking in 2017.
However, in the 16-44 age group, smoking was 2.4% more likely to have contributed to deaths than obesity.
Researchers also found that there was a gender division in the statistics.
Obesity and excess body fat was likely to have accounted for 5.2% more deaths in 2017 than smoking in men, compared to 2.2% more deaths in women.
READ MORE: Healthy eating plan launched as watchdog warns two-thirds of Scots overweight
Professor Pell said: “The increase in estimated deaths due to obesity and excess body fat is likely to be due to their contributions to cancer and cardiovascular disease.
“Our findings suggest that the public health and policy interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence of smoking have been successful and that national strategies to address obesity and excess body fat, particularly focusing on middle-aged and older age groups and men, should be a public health priority.”
Jess Kuehne, of the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “The discussion around obesity often focuses on children but, as these figures confirm, obesity is a major concern for people in later stages of life.
“With more of us living longer but increasingly in much poorer health, it is time we turned our focus to tackling obesity at every stage of life – including older ages.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel