A Professional & Personal Networking Site for Cardiologists Worldwide
obesity : an epidemic?
Most Americans overweight, and one-third are obese: NHANES
January 13, 2010 | Michael O'Riordan
Hyattsville, MD - Two new studies this week draw attention to the alarming number of individuals in the US considered overweight or obese [1,2]. Based on the latest surveys, more than two-thirds of US adults are overweight or obese, one-third are considered obese, and more than 10% of children and adolescents are also considered too heavy for their age.
The good news, however, is that the increasing obesity trends observed over the past decade appear to be leveling off, according to investigators.
"The levels are still very high, and obesity is a significant health concern," Dr Cynthia Ogden (Centers for Disease Control, Hyattsville, MD), an investigator on both studies, told heartwire. "On the other hand, we've seen a slowing down, if you will, in the rate of increase compared with what it was in the 1980s and 1990s, so that's a positive thing. But the prevalence remains very high, and significant disparities remain, and we did see an increase within this 10-year period. It's not as if there were no increase."
The data, from analyses of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), are published online January 13, 2010 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In an editorial accompanying the studies [3], Dr J Michael Gaziano (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA) argues that the despite the leveling off, the magnitude of the obesity problem threatens to undo gains made in recent years.
"Despite the many advances in preventive medicine and treatment that reduced cardiovascular disease, the new stage of the epidemiologic transition, the age of obesity and inactivity, emerged to threaten the progress made in postponing illness and death to later in adult life spans," he writes. "The steady gains made in both quality of life and longevity by addressing risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and dyslipidemia are threatened by the obesity epidemic."
Two-thirds of US adults obese or overweight
January 13, 2010 | Michael O'Riordan
Hyattsville, MD - Two new studies this week draw attention to the alarming number of individuals in the US considered overweight or obese [1,2]. Based on the latest surveys, more than two-thirds of US adults are overweight or obese, one-third are considered obese, and more than 10% of children and adolescents are also considered too heavy for their age.
The good news, however, is that the increasing obesity trends observed over the past decade appear to be leveling off, according to investigators.
"The levels are still very high, and obesity is a significant health concern," Dr Cynthia Ogden (Centers for Disease Control, Hyattsville, MD), an investigator on both studies, told heartwire. "On the other hand, we've seen a slowing down, if you will, in the rate of increase compared with what it was in the 1980s and 1990s, so that's a positive thing. But the prevalence remains very high, and significant disparities remain, and we did see an increase within this 10-year period. It's not as if there were no increase."
The data, from analyses of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), are published online January 13, 2010 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In an editorial accompanying the studies [3], Dr J Michael Gaziano (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA) argues that the despite the leveling off, the magnitude of the obesity problem threatens to undo gains made in recent years.
"Despite the many advances in preventive medicine and treatment that reduced cardiovascular disease, the new stage of the epidemiologic transition, the age of obesity and inactivity, emerged to threaten the progress made in postponing illness and death to later in adult life spans," he writes. "The steady gains made in both quality of life and longevity by addressing risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and dyslipidemia are threatened by the obesity epidemic."
Two-thirds of US adults obese or overweight
Tags: heartwire.org, source:
Comment
You need to be a member of CardiologyRounds.com to add comments!
Join CardiologyRounds.com