"Obesity in the United States"

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The costs of an unhealthy lifestyle:

Obesity in the United States

Obesity in the United States has been increasingly cited as a major health issue in recent decades. While many industrialized countries have experienced similar increases, obesity rates in the United States are among the highest in the world.[2] Of all countries, the United States has the highest rate of obesity. Estimates have steadily increased, from 19.4% in 1997, 24.5% in 2004[3] to 26.6% in 2007,[4] to 33.8% (adults) and 17% (children) in 2008.[5] In 2010, the CDC reported higher numbers once more, counting 35.7% of American adults as obese, and 17% of American children.[6]

According to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), in 2008 the obesity rate among adult Americans was estimated at 32.2% for men and 35.5% for women; these rates were roughly confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention again for 2009-2010. Using different criteria, a Gallup survey found the rate was 26.1% for U.S. adults in 2011, up from 25.5% in 2008. Though the rate for women has held steady over the previous decade, the obesity rate for men continued to increase between 1999 and 2008, the JAMA study notes. Moreover, “The prevalence of obesity for adults aged 20 to 74 years increased by 7.9 percentage points for men and by 8.9 percentage points for women between 1976-1980 and 1988-1994, and subsequently by 7.1 percentage points for men and by 8.1 percentage points for women between 1988-1994 and 1999-2000.”[7]

The direct medical cost of obesity and indirect economic loss to obesity has been estimated to be as high as $51.64 billion and $99.2 billion in 1995, respectively;[8] this rose to $61 billion and $117 billion in 2000.[9] Researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and RTI International estimate that in 2003, obesity-attributable medical expenditures reached $75 billion.[10]

Universal health care is a joke without universally leading healthy lifestyles.