July 2007

U.S. obesity rate continues to climb

Obesity and overweight prevalence in the United States increased from 13 percent to 32 percent between the 1960s and 2004, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Human Nutrition.

The prevalence of obesity has increased at an average rate of 0.3 percentage points to 0.8 percentage points across different socio-demographic groups over the past three decades. Some minority and low socioeconomic status groups — such as non-Hispanic black women and children, Mexican-American women and children, low socioeconomic status black men and white women and children, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders — are disproportionately affected.

The meta-analysis was published online May 17, in advance of the 2007 issue of Epidemiologic Reviews.

“We set out to estimate the average annual increase in prevalence as well as the variation between population groups to predict the future situation regarding obesity and overweight among U.S. adults and children,” said Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of International Health. “Obesity is a public health crisis. If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese.”

Other key findings in the study included:

• 66 percent of U.S. adults were overweight or obese in 2003–2004;
• Women 20–34 years old had the fastest increase rate of obesity and being overweight;
• 80 percent of black women age 40 years or older are overweight and 50 percent are obese; and
• Compared to other ethnic groups, Asians have a lower obesity prevalence; however, Asians born in the United States are four times more likely to be obese than their foreign-born counterparts; and

Source: John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, www.jhsph.edu

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