The role of obesity in exceptionally slow US mortality improvement

Significance Some have speculated that the rising prevalence of obesity may explain why the rate of mortality improvement in the United States has declined relative to other wealthy countries. This paper estimates that rising body mass index (BMI) has reduced the annual rate of improvement in US death rates between 1988 and 2011 by more than half a percentage point—equivalent to a 23% relative reduction in the rate of mortality decline—a large...