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Older Americans Leading in the War Against Obesity
Overweight Rising
for children, teens, men and steady for women
 April
5, 2006 - A new study published today in the Journal of the American
Medical Society headlined news that overweight and obesity continues to
climb for children and men, while it holds steady for women, but in the
same time comparison - 1999 to 2004 - older Americans (60 and over)
appear to be leading the way in the fight against fat.
In the adults studied, age 20 and older, 32.2% were
found to be obese in 2003-2004. Among those 60 and older, however, only
31% were found to be obese.
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Older Americans Winning Fight Against Fat |
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Both men and women age
60 and over were less overweight and obese in 2004 than in 2002
study. |
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Women age 60 and over
made a dramatic improvement in the percent considered extremely
obese. It looks like their male contemporaries picked up the
excess. |
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What is dramatic and encouraging for older citizens
is the change from 1999. Then, 30.5 of all adults were found to be obese
and now the percentage has jumped to 32.2. Seniors, on the other hand,
have reduced the percentage determined to be obese from 33.5% to 31%.
Baby Boomers aged 40 to 59, however, jumped in
obesity in 2004 to 36.8%, from just 33.5% in 1999.
Obesity continues to be a leading public health
concern in the United States. Between 1980 and 2002, obesity prevalence
doubled in adults aged 20 years or older and overweight prevalence
tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years, according to
background information in the article.
Cynthia L. Ogden, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues examined data
on national measurements of weight and height in 2003-2004 and compared
these data with estimates from 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 to determine if
the overweight trend is continuing.
The data consisted of weight and height
measurements from 3,958 children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years and
4,431 adults aged 20 years or older obtained in 2003-2004 as part of the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally
representative sample of the U.S. population.
Overweight among children and adolescents was
defined as at or above the 95th percentile of the sex-specific body mass
index (BMI) for age growth charts based on data collected between 1963
and 1994.
Body mass index is calculated as weight in
kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. Obesity among
adults was defined as a BMI of 30 or higher; extreme obesity was defined
as a BMI of 40 or higher.
The researchers found that 17.1 percent of children
and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years were overweight and 32.2 percent of
adults aged 20 years or older were obese in 2003-2004.
The prevalence of extreme obesity among adults was
4.8 percent. There was a significant increase in the prevalence of
overweight in female children and adolescents from 13.8 percent in
1999-2000 to 16 percent in 2003-2004.
There was also an increase in the prevalence of
overweight in male children and adolescents from 14.0 percent to 18.2
percent.
Among men, the prevalence of obesity increased
significantly between 1999-2000 (27.5 percent) and 2003-2004 (31.1
percent). Among women, no significant increase in obesity was observed
between 1999-2000 (33.4 percent) and 2003-2004 (33.2 percent). The
prevalence of extreme obesity in 2003-2004 was 2.8 percent in men and
6.9 percent in women.
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Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity or
Extreme Obesity |
| |
All Adults |
20-39 |
40-59 |
60+ |
60+ Men |
60+ Women |
|
Overweight or obesity |
|
1999-2000 |
64.5 |
57.6 |
68.0 |
70.8 |
74.1 |
68.1 |
|
2001-2002 |
65.7 |
57.2 |
71.1 |
71.5 |
74.4 |
69.2 |
|
2003-2004 |
66.3 |
57.1 |
73.1 |
71.0 |
73.7 |
68.9 |
|
Obesity |
|
1999-2000 |
30.5 |
26.0 |
33.5 |
33.5 |
31.8 |
35.0 |
|
2001-2002 |
30.6 |
26.1 |
33.9 |
33.1 |
30.2 |
35.2 |
|
2003-2004 |
32.2 |
28.5 |
36.8 |
31.0 |
30.4 |
31.5 |
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Extreme obesity |
|
1999-2000 |
4.7 |
4.5 |
5.8 |
3.4 |
1.8 |
4.7 |
|
2001-2002 |
5.1 |
4.8 |
5.8 |
4.7 |
1.8 |
6.8 |
|
2003-2004 |
4.8 |
5.4 |
5.4 |
3.0 |
2.5 |
3.3 |
In 2003-2004, significant differences in obesity
prevalence remained by race/ethnicity. Approximately 30 percent of
non-Hispanic white adults were obese as were 45 percent of non-Hispanic
black adults and 36.8 percent of Mexican Americans. Among adults aged 20
to 39 years, 28.5 percent were obese while 36.8 percent of adults aged
40 to 59 years and 31.0 percent of those aged 60 years or older were
obese in 2003-2004.
There is little indication that the prevalence is
decreasing in any subgroup of the population. These prevalence
estimates, based on a 6-year period (1999-2004), suggest that the
increases in body weight may be leveling off in women, the authors
write.
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