Data Talks: Obesity-Related Influences on US Mortality Rates

Abstract

Background: In the US, obesity is an epidemiologic challenge and the population fails to comprehend this complex public health issue. To evaluate underlying obesity-impact patterns on mortality rates, we data-mined the 1999–2016 Center for Disease Control WONDER database’s vital records. Methods: Adopting SAS programming, we scrutinized the mortality and population counts. Using ICD-10 diagnosis codes connected to overweight and obesity, we obtained the obesity-related crude and age-adjusted causes of death. To understand divergent and prevalence trends we compared and contrasted the tabulated obesity-influenced mortality rates with demographic information, gender, and age-related data. Key Results: From 1999 to 2016, the obesity-related age-adjusted mortality rates increased by 142%. The ICD-10 overweight and obesity-related death-certificate coding showed clear evidence that obesity factored in the male age-adjusted mortality rate increment to 173% and the corresponding female rate to 117%. It also disproportionately affected the nation-wide minority population death rates. Furthermore, excess weight distributions are coded as contributing features in the crude death rates for all decennial age-groups. Conclusions: The 1999–2016 data from ICD-10 death certificate coding for obesity-related conditions indicate that it is affecting all segments of the US population.

1997–2017 Leading Causes of Death Information Due to Diabetes, Neoplasms, and Diseases of the Circulatory System, Issues Cautionary Weight-Related Lesson to the US Population at Large

“…As a result, there are a variety of ICD-10 code reporting errors [13], [30]. However, the ICD-10 code data has been shown to have significant clinical value in physician-patient settings [31]- [33], and the public CDC WONDER database's ICD-10 information has generated valuable awareness on the negative impacts of the nation's waistline on human health [10], [12], [13], [20], [34]- [37].…”

Twenty-Year Observational Study Shows Rising Alcohol-Attributable Death Profiles in the U.S. and Delaware

“…Reflecting on the negative consequences of previously studied chronic condition-related mortality on African-American/Blacks (AA/B) in the U.S. and Delaware (D'Souza et al, 2018;D'Souza, Kashmar et al, 2015;D'Souza, Li, Gannon et al, 2019;D'Souza, Walls et al, 2015;D'Souza, Wentzien et al, 2017; death ratios were higher for both Whites and AA/B at 3,007/10,703,061 (0.00028) and 691/2,962,447 (0.00023), respectively.…”

“…For their research projects, students probe the databases' annual records for population, demographic, housing, social, and economic characteristics for all U.S. states, as well as for the State of Delaware (D'Souza et al, 2018;D'Souza, Kashmar et al, 2015;D'Souza, Wentzien, Bautista et al, 2017;D'Souza, Li, Gannon et al 2019;Neff & D'Souza, 2019). Furthermore, undergraduates completed epidemiologic methods in study design, data analysis, and statistical interpretations for the adverse human health effects observed from persistent health complications arising from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer (D'Souza et al, 2018;D'Souza, Kashmar et al, 2015;D'Souza, Li, Gannon et al, 2019;D'Souza, Walls et al, 2015;D'Souza, Wentzien et al, 2017;. Results reveal that the listed chronic conditions do (indeed) impact all segments of the U.S. population and that the African American/Black (AA/B) population has been disproportionately affected.…”

“…Results reveal that the listed chronic conditions do (indeed) impact all segments of the U.S. population and that the African American/Black (AA/B) population has been disproportionately affected. Also, project data showed that the AA/B community invariably experienced higher age-adjusted mortality rate averages correlated to low socioeconomic status and lack of adequate healthcare (D'Souza et al, 2018;D'Souza, Kashmar et al, 2015;D'Souza, Li, Gannon et al, 2019).…”

“…Delaware is diverse, and its race and demographic composition differ from the U.S. general population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). Wesley's correlation studies between explanatory and response variables show Delaware to have a much higher mortality rate when obesity is a contributory factor on the death certificate (D'Souza et al, 2018;D'Souza, Wentzien, Bautista et al, 2017;D'Souza, Wentzien, Bautista et al, 2019). Still, its death rates for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer closely follow the declining national trends (D'Souza et al, 2018;D'Souza, Kashmar et al 2015;D'Souza, Li, Gannon et al, 2019;D'Souza, Wentzien, Bautista et al, 2019;D'Souza, Wentzien et al, 2017).…”