Facts About Obesity in the United States

Facts About Obesity in the United States
facts-of-obesity-us FACT: Obesity rates are soaring in the U.S.

  • Between 1980 and 2000, obesity rates doubled among adults. About 60 million adults, or 30% of the adult population, are now obese.
  • Similarly since 1980, overweight rates have doubled among children and tripled among adolescents – increasing the number of years they are exposed to the health risks of obesity.

FACT: Obesity is already having an adverse impact on young people

  • Type 2 diabetes – once believed to affect only adults – is now being diagnosed among young people.
  • In some communities almost half of the pediatric diabetes cases are type 2, when in the past the total was close to zero. Although childhood-onset Type 2 diabetes is still a rare condition, overweight children with this disease are at risk of suffering the serious complications of diabetes as adults, such as kidney disease, blindness, and amputations.
  • Sixty-one percent, 61%,  of overweight 5- to10-year-olds already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, and 26% have two or more risk factors.

FACT: Most people still do not practice healthy behaviors that can prevent obesity

The primary behaviors causing the obesity epidemic are well known and preventable: physical inactivity and unhealthy diet.

Despite this knowledge:

  • Only about 25% of U.S. adults eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
  • Less than 25% of adolescents eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
  • More than 50% of American adults do not get the recommended amount of physical activity to provide health benefits.
  • More than a third of young people in grades 9–12 do not regularly engage in vigorous physical activity.

FACT: Obesity-related costs place a huge burden on the U.S. economy

Direct health costs attributable to obesity have been estimated at $52 billion in 1995 and $75 billion in 2003.

Among children and adolescents, annual hospital costs related to overweight and obesity more than tripled over the past two decades – rising to $127 million during 1997–1999 (in 2001 constant U.S. dollars), up from $35 million during 1979–1981.

Among adults in 1996, one study found that $31 billion of the treatment costs (in year 2000 dollars) for cardiovascular disease – 17% of direct medical costs – were related to overweight and obesity.