Report claims obesity rising among Americans
Source: Agencies |
August 5, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MORE than 72 million American adults, or 26.7 percent, are obese, up 1 percentage point in two years, according to a US government report.
Obesity has become "a major public health threat" and is steadily worsening, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
"We need intensive, comprehensive and ongoing efforts to address obesity," CDC Director Dr Thomas Frieden said in a statement.
"If we don't, more people will get sick and die from obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of death."
The CDC examined data from the national Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which surveys 400,000 people and asks about height and weight, among other things.
Looking state-by-state, the CDC found that 30 percent of adults in nine states are now obese. "In 2000, not a single state had an obesity prevalence of 30 percent or higher," Frieden told reporters.
Height and weight are used to calculate body mass index or BMI, the medically accepted way to measure obesity. A BMI of 25 or more makes someone overweight and obesity begins at a BMI of 30 - for instance, a 1.8-meter tall person who weighs 95 kilograms.
The survey found 2.4 million more people were obese in 2009 than in 2007, a 1.1 percentage point hike. And the CDC said this is almost certainly an underestimate, as people often say they are taller and weigh less than they actually do.
Blacks were the most likely to be obese, with 36.8 percent of US black adults having a BMI of 30 or more - 41 percent of black women.
Obesity has become "a major public health threat" and is steadily worsening, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
"We need intensive, comprehensive and ongoing efforts to address obesity," CDC Director Dr Thomas Frieden said in a statement.
"If we don't, more people will get sick and die from obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of death."
The CDC examined data from the national Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which surveys 400,000 people and asks about height and weight, among other things.
Looking state-by-state, the CDC found that 30 percent of adults in nine states are now obese. "In 2000, not a single state had an obesity prevalence of 30 percent or higher," Frieden told reporters.
Height and weight are used to calculate body mass index or BMI, the medically accepted way to measure obesity. A BMI of 25 or more makes someone overweight and obesity begins at a BMI of 30 - for instance, a 1.8-meter tall person who weighs 95 kilograms.
The survey found 2.4 million more people were obese in 2009 than in 2007, a 1.1 percentage point hike. And the CDC said this is almost certainly an underestimate, as people often say they are taller and weigh less than they actually do.
Blacks were the most likely to be obese, with 36.8 percent of US black adults having a BMI of 30 or more - 41 percent of black women.
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