Results of the longest ever ongoing health study in the United States have revealed that obesity is, in current times, a bigger overall threat to the health of people as compared to smoking.

As per the study, obesity causes as much, and sometimes even more, diseases and health problems as tobacco. The large-scale study was conducted by researchers from the Columbia University and the City College of New York. Also, the study has indicated that while smoking rates across the country have started to fall, those of obesity are rising, and the latter, therefore, shortens as many, or even more, healthy lifespan as tobacco use does.

"Health impacts of obesity are, in many ways, much larger, than the health impacts of smoking. (Smoking) in the end, is limited to heart disease and cancer", said Dr. Arya Sharma, chairman for obesity research and management at the University of Alberta.

The study was conducted over a period of 15 years and was based mainly on interviews of over 3.5 million people, in addition to calculations of the number of "quality-adjusted life years" cut back because of obesity and smoking.

Overall, the researchers asserted that smoking caused more deaths, but obesity did manage to have a greater impact on serious illnesses.