Women who are overweight or obese may suffer more than their male counterparts.

A study published in the September 2006 American Journal of Public Health found that overweight and obese women were more depressed, died earlier and enjoyed fewer years of good health than their overweight or obese male counterparts. Nevertheless, overweight people of both sexes died much younger and lost years of "quality living" compared to people of normal weight.

Researchers led by Dr. Peter Munnig of Columbia University examined the medical records of 84,375 adults. They analyzed the records for weight-related deaths and number of years spent in poor health. Although more men than women in the study were overweight, there were more obese women.

The researchers concluded that overweight men in the United States lost 47,000 years of life compared to one million lost by women. Overweight women had 6.6 times higher burden of disease compared to their male counterparts.

The implications are that if the majority of Americans continue to be overweight or obese, women will no longer continue to outlive men. Statistically, overweight children grow up to become overweight adults. Since so many American children are overweight, this means that their life expectancies will probably be shorter than those of their parents and grandparents.

The authors concluded that "overweight has a profound impact on both the length and quality of life."