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US
obesity epidemic shows no hint of shrinking
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO, Jan. 17, 2012 (AP): US-America's obesity epidemic is
proving to be as stubborn as those maddening love handles, and
shows no sign of reversing course.
More than one-third of adults and almost 17 percent of children
were obese in 2009-2010, echoing results since 2003, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.
``It's good that we didn't see increases. On the other hand, we
didn't see any decreases in any group,'' said CDC researcher
Cynthia Ogden.
Early in the decade, slight increases were seen among white,
black and Latino men, and among Latino and black women. These
changes may be leveling off, but the authors said they ``found
no indication that the prevalence of obesity is declining in any
group.''
In 2009-2010, more than 78 million adults and almost 13 million
children aged 2-19 were obese, the CDC researchers reported.
Those numbers are staggering, and while they haven't increased
in recent years, ``we're plateauing at an unacceptably high
prevalence rate,'' said Dr. David Ludwig, director of an obesity
prevention center at Children's Hospital Boston. He was not
involved in the reports.
The CDC reports summarize results of national health surveys in
children and adults, which are conducted every two years. The
nationally representative surveys include in-person weight and
height measurements. The 2009-2010 reports involved nearly 6,000
adults and about 4,000 children, from infancy through age 19.
The results were released online in the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Dr. Elbert Huang, an associate professor of medicine at the
University of Chicago who studies health care policy issues,
said his research shows that even if obesity rates continue to
remain stable, there will be dramatic increases down the road in
diabetes and in costs linked with that disease. That's because
Type 2 diabetes, among many diseases linked with obesity,
becomes more prevalent as people age.
The latest reports—one on children and the other on
adults—focused on obesity, meaning a body-mass index of at least
30. But the numbers of adults and children who were overweight,
with a BMI of between 25 and 29, also remained high.
Overall, 33 percent of adults were overweight but not obese,
versus about 15 percent of children and teens.
Rates of overweight or obese adults and children were generally
higher in blacks and Hispanics than in whites.
The government says a healthy weight is a BMI of between 18 and
25. The index is a ratio of height to weight.
Online: JAMA:
http://jama.ama-assn.org
CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov
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