If trends continue, about one-third of children and one-half of teens will be obese/overweight by 2030
MONDAY, June 11, 2018 (HealthDay News) — If current trends continue, one-third of children and one-half of adolescents will be obese or overweight by 2030, according to a study presented during Nutrition 2018, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held from June 9 to 12 in Boston.
Youfa Wang, M.D., Ph.D., from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., and colleagues examined 1999 to 2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 2011 to 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to assess time trends and disparities in prevalence and projected obesity.
The researchers found that since 1999 there was a consistent increase in obesity prevalence, with disparities across groups and regions. Men’s obesity and overweight/obesity leveled off in 2009 to 2012 but continued increasing to 38.0/74.7 percent in 2015 to 2016. Uninterrupted increases were seen in the prevalence of obesity and obesity/overweight among women since 1999, reaching 41.5 and 68.9 percent, respectively, in 2015 to 2016. Unlike girls, there was a continuous increase in obesity and severe obesity prevalence for boys, reaching 20.6 and 7.5 percent, respectively, in 2015 to 2016. If current trends continue, ~50 percent of adults will be obese, and ~33 and ~50 percent of children (6 to 11 years) and adolescents (12 to 19 years), respectively, will be overweight/obese.
“U.S. obesity and overweight prevalence has been on the rise in recent years, with a brief leveling off in 2009 to 2012,” the authors write.
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