Just when a JAMA editorial this September saw a “glimmer of hope” that U.S. obesity (and diabetes) rates had leveled off, a new survey slashed those hopes.
The government Thursday released data that show obesity continuing to creep upward with women having higher rates than men and both having increasing rates as they get older.
For the past several years, experts thought the nation’s alarming, decades-long rise in obesity had leveled off. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the obesity rate climbed to nearly 38% of adults in 2013-14, up from 32% about a decade earlier.
“This is a striking finding” and suggests that a situation that was thought to be stable is getting worse, said Dr. William Dietz, an obesity expert at George Washington University.
But other experts urged people to be cautious about how the interpret the report.
The University of North Carolina’s Barry Popkin said the participants selected for the study may not have been representative of the nation as a whole.
And Dr. Scott Kahan of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, chided the media for blowing a blip in the data out of proportion.
“I don’t get worried from this data,” said Kahan, medical director for the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent Obesity Alliance. “We’re very early in the public health approach to obesity.”
For the full article, click here.
Contact Steven G. Cosby, MHSA, Group Health Insurance Broker and Agent with Cosby Insurance Group, with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.
