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Older Americans are significantly more likely than Europeans to be diagnosed with and treated for chronic diseases, the journal Health Affairs found in an online study.

Obesity and smoking were found to be major factors.

If the United States could bring its obesity rates in line with Europe’s, which would be a decrease from 33.1% to 17.1%, it could save at least $100 billion a year in healthcare costs, according to Kenneth Thorpe, PhD, study author and chairman of Emory University’s Department of Health Policy and Management.

Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland were included in the study.

The study estimated that U.S. spending on health care could be reduced as much as $1,750 per person per year if people 50 years and older were treated at the same rate as Europeans for 10 common conditions: heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, diabetes, chronic lung diseases, asthma, arthritis, osteoporosis, and cancer.

Fifty-three percent of Americans are current or former smokers, compared with 43% of Europeans, according to the study.

While researchers said it’s possible that Americans are more ill than Europeans, it’s also possible that aggressive diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases account for the higher prevalence in the U.S.