US Obesity and Diabetes Continue to Rise

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)

Despite efforts to sound the alarm about obesity and diabetes in the US, rates of both conditions continue to skyrocket. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia report that in 2000, nearly 20% of American adults were obese, 7.3% had diabetes and about 3% suffered from both conditions. Dr. Ali H. Mokdad of the CDC and colleagues randomly interviewed 184,450 US adults by telephone. Participants answered questions about their height, weight, diet, exercise habits and diabetes. The researchers calculated each person's body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height that is used to assess obesity in adults.

People with a BMI score of 30 or more are considered obese. " Our current findings indicate that most US adults (more than 56%) are overweight, about 1 in 5 is obese, and 7.3% have diabetes," the authors write in the September 12th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. They note that diabetes rates could be as high as 10% if undiagnosed cases are considered. Colorado had the lowest rate of obesity, with about 14%, while Mississippi topped the scales with 24.3% obesity or nearly 1 in 4 adults with a BMI of 30 or more. Mississippi also heads the list as the state with the highest rate of diabetes, at nearly 9%. Alaska had the lowest rate, 4.4%, the report indicates.

The researchers explain that their findings are conservative, largely due to the fact that overweight people tend to underestimate their weight and all people are likely to overestimate how tall they are. In other findings, Mokdad and colleagues report that 27% of those surveyed said that they did not engage in any physical activity and 28% said they were "not regularly active". The good news is that both obesity and diabetes are largely preventable, and even small reductions in weight can have big health benefits, according to Mokdad's team.

For instance, the authors point to a recent study conducted in Finland where researchers found that diet and exercise counseling resulted in a 58% reduction in diabetes risk among people who were prime candidates for developing the condition, which is associated with obesity and sedentary lifestyle. In that study, even modest weight loss conferred a much lower risk of diabetes. Those who participated in 4 hours of exercise per week--even if they did not achieve their weight-loss goal--had a reduction in diabetes risk.

SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association 2001;286:1195

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