Obesity Deaths: How Different Coding Schemas Affect U.S. Life Expectancy Estimates

Andrea M Tilstra , University of Oxford
José Manuel Aburto, CPop, University of Southern Denmark
Iliya Gutin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jennifer B. Dowd , Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford

The obesity epidemic has dire consequences for U.S. mortality and life expectancy trends, and research indicates that these trends may continue to worsen as younger cohorts are exposed to more time in the U.S. obesogenic environment. Estimating obesity-related mortality rates using cause-specific mortality data is an important way of estimating the consequences of the obesity epidemic on U.S. mortality. However, we contend that the inconsistent ICD codes used across studies are contributing to vastly different estimates of and trends in U.S. obesity-related mortality. In this paper, we first document how different obesity-related ICD coding schemas translate to different estimates of years of life lost due to obesity, including highlighting sex and race/ethnic differences. Second, we propose a standardized obesity-related ICD coding schema. Findings from this paper are of international importance as obesity-related mortality becomes a worldwide concern.

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 Presented in Session 36. Alcohol, smoking, and obesity attributable mortality