New figures from the federal government shows that the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. largely leveled off over the last decade, even as some individual groups, such as boys from ages 6 to 19, saw increases.
Obesity rates in adults rose slightly to 35.7 percent from 30.5 percent between 1999 and 2010, compared with rates that nearly doubled in the two previous decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The rate among boys climbed 29 percent, surpassing girls for the first time, according to the Atlanta-based health agency. More than 78 million U.S. adults, or a third of the population, and about 12.5 million children were obese in 2009- 2010, according to the studies reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The studies are part of a continuing CDC effort to track obesity rates with updated numbers every two years.
“There is really a slowing down of the rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity that we saw in the 1980s and 1990s,” said Cynthia Ogden, a CDC epidemiologist and the report's lead author, by telephone. “Those increases we saw earlier are not continuing, and we may be seeing a plateau.” The researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which weighs and measures participants, producing the most accurate details available, said Cynthia Ogden, a CDC epidemiologist, by telephone. The analysis found virtually no changes since 2007, Ogden said.
Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut said that till now the focus was on drugs to curb obesity or diets. Those won't work on a national scale because obesity is difficult to reverse once established, he said. Now that public health authorities have targeted obesity as a driver of illness and death, akin to smoking or traffic fatalities, they are increasingly finding ways to change the environment to encourage healthier eating and physical activity habits early in life, he said. Obesity has been shown to boost the risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and stroke, the CDC has said. Americans spend about $147 billion a year on obesity-related health costs. “It was all about how to remedy obesity once it occurred, the problem is it is a really hard problem to reverse, so you want to prevent it,” The Rudd Center's Brownell said. That's only starting to happen, with efforts to limit soda and junk food in schools and other programs, Brownell said.
Nisa Maruthur, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore said, “The general population knows that obesity is problem, but unfortunately attention doesn't equal results.” The continued creep of the scale among males and African American women show that targeted programs are needed to try to reduce obesity rates, she said. Unfortunately, there's no way to pinpoint why those groups in particular are still battling with weight gain on a broad level, Maruther said.
Dr. Elbert Huang, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago who studies health care policy issues, said his research shows that even if obesity rates continue to remain stable, there will be dramatic increases down the road in diabetes and in costs linked with that disease. That's because Type 2 diabetes, among many diseases linked with obesity, becomes more prevalent as people age.
“I'm not very surprised, but I think this is a kind of encouraging finding, given all the efforts we have been making,” said Dr. Youfa Wang, head of the Johns Hopkins Global Center for Childhood Obesity in Baltimore, who was not involved in the new study. “The general public for sure nowadays has become more aware of the health consequences of obesity, and industry has been heavily influenced by all the efforts,” Wang told Reuters Health.
Amika Singh, who has studied childhood obesity at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, said it's too early to draw conclusions on a more global scale. “The basic thing is that, even if things are leveling off, these are still quite high numbers,” Singh, who was not involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.
The U.S. Health and Human Services department has awarded more than $119 million to states and territories for programs to reduce obesity since 2009, including increasing physical activity and improved nutrition. More than a dozen states have also banned soda from school vending machines and lunch lines, and some restaurant chains, including McDonalds Corp., Chick-fil-A Inc. and Darden Restaurants Inc., have committed to cut calories in their foods.
New York City was able to reduce the obesity rate among grade school children 5.5 percent from 2006 to 2010 by boosting physical activity and encouraging healthier eating habits. The percentage of obese kids in kindergarten through eighth grade in New York City schools fell to 20.7 percent in the 2010- 2011 school year, from 21.9 percent in 2006-2007, according to a study by the city's health and education departments.
“The fact that prevalence rates are reaching a plateau is good news, but by no means are we at the end of the epidemic,” said David Ludwig, a pediatric endocrinologist and director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Children's Hospital Boston. “Unless we see declining rates of obesity the impact on society will continue to mount for many years to come. The plateau is at an unacceptably high level.”
According to the reports, men became more obese in the latest decade, rising to 35.5 percent at the end of the decade from 27.5 percent. The rate among women didn't significantly change over the time period, finishing at 35.8 percent. Among all sexes and age groups, women 60 and older had the highest prevalence, with 42.3 percent. Obesity rates for boys ages 2 to 19 rose to 18.6 percent in 2009-2010 from 14 percent in 1999-2000, while the rate for girls was little changed at 15 percent.
What is worrying is the rate of obesity among boys. “The overall trend, even though it's not as fast as before, is still going up gradually,” said Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. “Despite all the effort and all the money we've put into obesity control, there is no sign the epidemic is abating. If anything, obesity rates are actually inching up, especially in some groups.”
One reason why boys may be getting obese faster than girls is the ever-growing use of video games, the Internet, and electronic devices, said Jacob Warman, chief of endocrinology at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York. “Even though the schools are emphasizing exercise at the gym, there are more things that take their attention away,” making kids sedentary, he said in a telephone interview. Girls are more self-conscious about their bodies than boys, which may counteract the trend toward more screen time, Warman said.
Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University, said fast-food establishments also tend to target boys and young men. “Marketers encourage boys and young men to eat and drink as much as they can as part of macho lifestyles,” Nestle wrote in an e-mail. “The bigger the portions, the more the calories, and the bigger the person,” he added.
The efforts to find a perfect anti-obesity drug have been stymied by side effects deemed too risky to win marketing approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “You will see a drug approved in the next five years, but it won't be a perfect drug,” said Steve Brozak, an analyst with WBB Securities in Clark, New Jersey, in an interview.
Ogden said it's difficult to point to one reason why the rate of obesity in the U.S. has seemed to stabilize, while some projections figured it would continue to rise. “It was hard to know exactly why (the increase) was happening in the first place, because obesity is very complex and there are so many factors that contribute to it,” she said.
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