Obesity epidemic seen slowing but not falling

While the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has increased over the last several years, so has the parallel health problem of obesity.

But while Type 2 diabetes has risen dramatically, particularly in the last five years, the obesity epidemic might be plateauing among some groups, even if it’s not reversing.

“Obesity has been increasing in prevalence over the last several decade. But we are starting to see a leveling off among women, and it doesn’t look like we’ve seen any major increases among children and teens over the last several years,” said Karen Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But it’s not decreasing, either.”

A study published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that between 1999 and 2006, overweight and obesity among children in the United States stayed stable at about 32 percent. By contrast, between 1980 and 2004, the percentage of children ages 6 to 11 who were obese increased from 6.5 percent to 18.8 percent; among those ages 12 to 19, the rate increased from 5 percent in 1980 to 17.4 percent in 2004.

According to the CDC, the rate among adults has remained high, but showed no statistically significant increase between 2003 and 2006 for men or women, though adults ages 40 to 59 still had much higher rates of obesity than those in the 20-to-39 age group and those 60 and older.

While the numbers appear to be leveling off, education on the subject has become more widespread.

“The awareness of the issue has grown tremendously,” said Lisa Simpson, a professor and director of the child policy research center at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center who specializes in childhood obesity.

Simpson is one of four pediatricians on the Obesity Research Work Group, which the American Academy of Pediatrics established this year. Despite the findings in JAMA, she said that the rate at which primary-care physicians have historically identified children as obese has been very low, though this also is changing.

“If you don’t identify a child as obese, then you can’t even begin to think of intervention,” Simpson said.

But some worrying trends remain, she said. In particular, obesity rates vary between income, racial and ethnic groups.

According to the CDC, they vary especially widely among women. About 53 percent of black women and 51 percent of Mexican-American women were obese, compared with 39 percent of white women. Among women ages 60 and older, 61 percent of black women were obese, compared with 37 percent of Mexican-American women and 32 percent of white women.

Because of disparities like these, Simpson said, retail pharmacies can help with education.

“Because of the disproportionate toll that the epidemic is taking on low-income [people] and racial and ethnic minorities, retail pharmacists—being aware of the issues of patient education, health literacy and health numeracy—are critical,” she said.

Some pharmacists also refer patients to outside specialists to address health problems related to lifestyle. Karen Reed, a pharmacist at the Kmart in Beckley, W.Va., and a spokeswoman for the American Pharmacists Association’s American Pharmacists Month program, said she refers some of her diabetes patients to dieticians and other specialists, communicating with them beforehand so they know what patients’ problems are and can find ways to help them change their ways.

“I kind of give them a heads-up so they can see what the problem is,” she said. “It sometimes makes it more effective if they know what to anticipate.”

“Referral out to community resources and counseling is really critical,” she said.