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Obesity is described as the fasting growing public health challenge the nation has ever faced - and its rapid increase has crossed all socio-economic groups. Obesity is attributable to inadequate activity, unhealthy eating habits and changing food alternatives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described the current situation as:
"American society has become 'obesogenic,' characterized by environments that promote increased food intake, nonhealthful foods, and physical inactivity"
The rise in the prevalence of adult obesity has been well documented over the last 20 years increasing from 12 percent in 1989 to 27 percent in 2008. While this level of obesity appears high, the true prevalence of obesity is likely to be substantially higher as it has been shown to be under-reported by approximately 9.5 percent because of the tendency of individuals to understate their weight on telephone surveys, the method of data collection used for these studies. So, obesity levels are most likely substantially higher than often quoted. Using this information, Dr. Thorpe projected expected obesity levels in 2013 and 2018 based upon self-reported data and adjusted these projections for likely under-reporting (Figure 1 and Table 1).
Table 1: Estimated Prevalence of Obesity in the United States
Estimated Prevalence of Obesity
United States
(Percent of Adult Population) |
|
|
Lower Estimate (Self-Reported) |
Midpoint |
Upper Estimate (Adjusted) |
|
2008 |
26.5% |
31.3% |
36.0% |
|
2013 |
31.7% |
36.5% |
41.2% |
|
2018 |
38.0% |
42.8% |
47.5% | |
|
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In 2018, Colorado is projected to be the only state that will have a prevalence of adult obesity that is less than 30 percent. In contrast, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio and South Dakota will all have adult obesity levels over 50 percent.
See Projected Prevalence of Obesity for individual state Download full report (pdf format) on " The Future Costs of Obesity: National and State Estimates of the Impact of Obesity on Direct Health Care Expenses"
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http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/index.html accessed Oct 25, 2009 BRFSS data, www.cdc.gov/brfss
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