Over 73% of U.S. Adults Overweight or Obese | MedPage Today
Primary Care>Obesity – Over 73% of U.S. Adults Overweight or Obese
— Obesity rate up by half since 1999-2000, NHANES data indicate; near ly 10% severely obese
by Kristen Monaco, Staff Writer, MedPage Today December 11, 2020
About 42% of American adults had obesity in 2017-2018, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data showed.
Among adults ages 20 and older, 42.4% were identified as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, while 9.2% had severe obesity, defined as a BMI of 40 or higher, reported Cheryl Fryar, MSPH, of the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues.
Another 30.7% of American adults were overweight, with a BMI of 25 to 29.9.
When the results were stratified by age, adults 40 to 59 saw the highest rates of obesity, with 45% of this age group with a BMI of 30 or higher. Middle-aged men had the highest prevalence of obesity, at a rate of 46%.
Not surprisingly, the rates of obesity also varied according to ethnicity.
Most notably, non-Hispanic Asian Americans consistently and overwhelmingly had the lowest rates of obesity, with only 18% and 17% of Asian men and women having a BMI over 30 in the most recent survey period.
On the other hand, Mexican American adults had some of the highest rates, with 51% of men and 50% of women with obesity. Similarly, 41% of non-Hispanic Black men had obesity, as did 57% of Black adult women.
« Although BMI is widely used as a measure of body fat, at a given BMI level, body fat may vary by sex, age, and race and Hispanic origin, » Fryar’s group wrote. « In particular, research suggests that health risks may begin at a lower BMI among Asian persons compared with others. »
The current prevalence of obesity in the U.S. is in stark contrast to what the nation looked like several decades ago.
In national data from the survey period of 1960-1962, only about 13.4% of adults had obesity and less than 1% had severe obesity. And during that same survey period, about 31.5% of American adults were considered overweight.
From the early 1960s to today, however, the rates of obesity steadily increased each decade, doubling from 15% in 1976-1980 to 30.9% in 1999-2000.
But since the turn of the century, the rise in obesity rates seemed to slow down a bit despite still increasing. For example, the only times that obesity rates actually fell in the past 60 years was in 2007-2008 and again in 2011-2012.
Regarding children, the researchers found that 19.3% of Americans ages 2-19 had obesity, defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile on the growth chart. This included about 6.1% of kids who were identified as having severe obesity, measured as a BMI at or above 120% of the 95th percentile.
In addition to this, another 16.1% of U.S. children were overweight during the 2017-2018 survey period, defined as at or above the 85th percentile on the sex-specific BMI-for-age growth chart.
At this time, the rates of obesity were highest among teens: 21% of those ages 12-19 had obesity, with the rates for teen boys slightly higher than for teen girls (23% vs 20%).
Similar to in adults, the obesity rates followed similar ethnic patterns among kids. As for boys, the highest rates of obesity were seen among those of Mexican American (29%) and Hispanic (28%) descent, whereas for girls, the highest rates of obesity were among Black (29%) and Mexican American (25%) children and adolescents.
Again similar to the situation in adults, obesity in American kids followed a trajectory over the past several decades. In the 1971-1974 survey period, only 5% of U.S. kids had obesity, with only 1% of this subset having severe obesity; only 10% of kids were then overweight.
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Kristen Monaco is a staff writer, focusing on endocrinology, psychiatry, and dermatology news. Based out of the New York City office, she’s worked at the company for nearly five years.
Primary Source
NCHS Health E-Stat
Secondary Source
NCHS Health E-Stat