Studies: Obesity on the Rise in US

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Studies: Obesity on the Rise in US

By ROBERT JABLON

..c The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Obesity is a U.S. epidemic that has surged in the past

decade and now affects nearly one in five adults, killing some 300,000 a

year, a collection of new studies suggest.

The studies, which will be published in Wednesday's Journal of the American

Medical Association, are the latest to spread the warning that Americans are

getting fatter - and that fat kills.

``Obesity is a major cause of mortality in the United States,'' concludes one

of the surveys.

One study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that

the number of Americans considered obese - defined as being more than 30

percent over their ideal body weight - soared from about one in eight in 1991

to nearly one in five last year.

In 1991, four out of 45 participating states had obesity rates of 15 percent

or higher, while the figure for 1998 was 37 states, according to the study.

That data, which was to be announced today at the AMA's annual Science

Reporters Convention, was based on telephone surveys of more than 100,000

participants each year between 1991-98.

Younger adults, people with some college education and Hispanics showed the

most drastic increases, but ``a steady increase was observed in all states;

in both sexes; across age groups, races, educational levels; and occurred

regardless of smoking status,'' the study found.

Overall, the population of obese men and women increased from 12 percent in

1991 to 17.9 percent last year, according to the CDC survey, which said that

figure might be conservative.

Other recent research has found that more than 50 percent of Americans are

overweight and 22 percent are obese, even though weight-loss products and

services are a $33 billion-a-year industry.

Being overweight has been strongly associated with greater risk of certain

illnesses, including heart disease, high cholesterol and blood pressure,

diabetes, stroke and some cancers.

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine of more than 1 million

Americans concluded that obese people run a significant risk of dying early,

even if they don't smoke and are otherwise healthy.

Another study in this week's JAMA issue on obesity - all of the studies

involved Americans at least the age of 18 - attributed an estimated average

of about 280,000 deaths a year to being overweight, but said the figure could

be more than 374,000 when the numbers are calculated differently.

The figures were adjusted for sex, age and whether the subjects smoked but

did not factor in chronic disease or family histories that might indicate a

predisposition to an illness.

An editorial accompanying the obesity issue of JAMA calls for developing a

comprehensive national strategy to prevent obesity.

Growth in the marketing of fast food and snack food, as well as lack of

exercise, are among the reasons Americans are taking in more calories than

they burn, the editorial concluded.

``Children watch more television daily, physical education has been markedly

reduced in our schools, many neighborhoods lack sidewalks for safe walking,

the workplace has become increasingly automated, household chores are

assisted by labor-saving machinery, and walking or bicycling has been

replaced by automobile travel,'' the editorial said.

AP-NY-10-26-99 0811EDT

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