The total of illness due to overweight and obesity in the United States set up those overweight cost U.S. women 1.8 million years of perfect health, compared with just 270,000 years lost for men.
Obesity cost women 3.40 million years of perfect health, compared to 1.94 million years for men. This gender difference could be due to the social stigma that excess weight carries for women but not for men. The study, published in the July issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, and simultaneously released by EurekAlert, establish that an obese person is about 25 percent more likely than a non-obese person to have a mood or anxiety disorder, such as depression. It also indicated that among Caucasian Americans and more educated people who are obese, that likelihood may be as high as 44 percent.
While the study did not show whether obesity leads to depression or vice versa, "it's almost certain that the association works in both directions," said Greg Simon, MD, MPH, a Group Health psychiatrist and the lead author of the study.

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