News release: “More than one in four British adults smoke and one in four are obese, increasing the country’s collective risk for chronic conditions. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index also reveals that rates of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes among British adults increase sharply after age 45. Obesity rates in the U.K. increase into middle age, with 45- to 64-year-old Britons most likely to be obese (30.9%), before declining slightly in the 65-plus age range. Smoking rates, on the other hand, decreases with age. Young adults are the most likely to say they indulge in the habit, with 35.0% saying so. These findings, encompassing the first three months of Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index tracking in the United Kingdom, reveal that Britons are nearly as likely as Americans to be obese and are more likely to smoke.”