Obesity is a major health concern for numerous reasons. People who are obese have a greater chance of developing medical conditions that can negatively affect their quality of life or even lead to death, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, fertility problems, sleep apnea or stroke. Obesity is expensive, too, costing the United States approximately $147 billion in medical expenses each year, according to a 2008 study.
Features of Obesity
Healthcare professionals determine if an individual is obese based on her body mass index, an estimate of body fat typically shortened to BMI. Your BMI depends on your height and weight, and the measurement divides people into one of four basic categories: underweight, healthy weight, overweight and obese. Obese adults have a BMI equal to 30 or greater, while obese children have a BMI that is higher than the BMI of 95 percent of other children their same age and gender.
Adult Statistics
As of 2008, more than 33 percent of adults age 20 or older in the United States are obese, notes the Weight-Control Information Network, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The rates differ slightly by gender, with 32.2 percent of men designated obese, as compared to 35.5 percent of women. Moreover, about 6 percent of obese adults have a BMI of 40 or higher, which makes them extremely, or morbidly, obese.
Child Statistics
As with American adults, children in the U.S. have also experienced a significant increase in obesity from 1980 until 2008. While only 6.5 percent of children ages 6 to 11 were obese in 1980, 19.6 percent -- or roughly triple that amount -- were obese as of 2008, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The situation is similar with adolescents and teenagers ages 12 to 19. Only about 5 percent of those in that age group were obese in 1980, but that rate increased to 18.1 percent in 2008.
Considerations
Obesity trends in the U.S. show that certain groups of people are more likely to be obese than others. For instance, non-Hispanic white adults ages 20 and older have a lower rate of obesity than either Hispanic adults and black adults, but a higher rate than Asian-American adults. Approximately 8.9 percent of Asian-American adults are obese, in contrast to 32.5 percent of white adults, 38.7 percent of Hispanic adults, and 43.5 percent of black adults. Statistics also show that women are more likely to be obese than men. The rate of obesity is about 1.1 percent higher for white women than white men, 8.7 percent higher for Hispanic women than Hispanic men, and 12.3 percent higher for black women than black men.
Member Comments