In: Masters RK, Reither EN, Powers DA, Yang YC, Burger AE, Link BG. The impact of obesity on US mortality levels: the importance of age and cohort factors in population estimates. Am J Public Health. 2013;103(10):1895–1901. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301379
The population attributable fractions (PAFs) presented in this article were calculated using the following equation:
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where pe is the prevalence of exposure in the entire sample and RRR is the relative rate ratio between the exposed and non-exposed sample. The article mistakenly stated that the PAFs were estimated using the following equation:
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where pd is the prevalence of exposure among the deceased. If we had used Equation 2 we would have estimated the following PAFs:
Table 1 Modified provides newly estimated PAFs to be consistent with Equation 2.
TABLE 1—
Modified—Estimated Percentage of US Deaths Between Ages 40.0 and 84.9 Years for Birth Cohorts 1900–1960 Associated With Overweight, Grade 1 Obesity, and Grade 2/3 Obesity: National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files, 1986–2006
| Gender and Race | Overweight, % | Grade 1 Obesity, % | Grade 2/3 Obesity, % | Total, % |
| Black women | –1.4 | 5.0 | 8.1 | 11.7 |
| White women | 1.2 | 5.9 | 4.2 | 11.3 |
| Black men | –2.9 | 2.7 | 1.9 | 1.7 |
| White men | –1.1 | 4.3 | 2.5 | 5.7 |