More American adults determined obese, JAMA report finds
Americans are still getting fatter with age. The population of adults identified as obese or severely obese continued to grow in the United States between 2007-2008 and 2015-2016, according to research published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
But there were no significant overall changes among youth, noted lead author Craig Hales, a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity among adults has been on the rise since the 1980s but plateaued among youth between 2005-2006 and 2013-2014.
According to the research, 39.6% of all adults were classified as obese and 7.7% were determined to be severely obese over the course of 2015 through 2016. That's up from 33.7% and 5.7%, respectively, from a similar report over the course of 2007 through 2008.
The increase in obesity rates among youth was less pronounced, the research found. As many as 18.5% of the population between the ages of 2 and 19 were classified as obese during the 2015/2016 period, up only sightly from 16.8% in 2007/2008. Youths classified as severely obese went up from 4.9% to 5.6% over those periods.
The data includes weight measurements of 16,875 youth and 27,449 adults (over the age of 20) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007-2008 to 2015-2016.
But there were no significant overall changes among youth, noted lead author Craig Hales, a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity among adults has been on the rise since the 1980s but plateaued among youth between 2005-2006 and 2013-2014.
According to the research, 39.6% of all adults were classified as obese and 7.7% were determined to be severely obese over the course of 2015 through 2016. That's up from 33.7% and 5.7%, respectively, from a similar report over the course of 2007 through 2008.
The increase in obesity rates among youth was less pronounced, the research found. As many as 18.5% of the population between the ages of 2 and 19 were classified as obese during the 2015/2016 period, up only sightly from 16.8% in 2007/2008. Youths classified as severely obese went up from 4.9% to 5.6% over those periods.
The data includes weight measurements of 16,875 youth and 27,449 adults (over the age of 20) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007-2008 to 2015-2016.