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Obesity Rates Keep Climbing: Percentages for Children and Men Increase, While Women Hold Steady

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 03:01 CDT

By John Fauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Apr. 5--Dousing hopes that America's obesity epidemic might be leveling off or reversing, new data show an alarming increase in obesity in children and raise questions about how fat America can get.

"Obviously there has to be some upper limit," said lead author Cynthia Ogden, a researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "I just don't know where it's going to be."

Obesity and overweight in men also increased, although an encouraging sign was that obesity in women remained constant at about one-third of the population age 20 and older.

At the other end of the spectrum, a separate group of researchers found that depriving people of about 25% of their normal calories, while still having them eat nutritionally balanced diets, led to physiological changes associated with increased longevity.

The six-month month study involving 48 people -- the first in non-obese humans -- showed that calorie restriction led to improvements in insulin levels, a beneficial decrease of about one degree in body temperature and less DNA damage to cells.

Numerous animal studies have showed that calorie restriction, which slows metabolism, can extend life span as much as one-third.

"The next phase is to look at more people for a longer time," said co-author Steven Smith, an associate professor of endocrinology at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

Both studies were published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The national obesity study is considered one of the most credible estimates of the problem because it included actual weight and height measurements of 3,958 children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 and 4,431 adults age 20 and older. Other surveys simply ask people for those measurements, which tend to be inaccurate.

The study found that in 2003-'04, 17.1% of 2- to 19-year-olds were obese, up from 13.9% in 1999-2000 and 15.4% in 2001-'02.

The biggest increase in obesity was found in 6- to 11-year-olds, up from 15.1% in 1999-2000 to 18.8% in 2003-'04.

"It's during childhood that our patterns often are set," Ogden said. "Overweight adolescents often become obese adults."

The percentage of kids who are overweight also increased, up from 30% in 2001-'02 to 33.6% in 2003-'04.

More needs to be done

The finding shows that childhood obesity is not leveling off and that much more needs to be done, said Aaron Carrel, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"It's a pretty loud message that things are worsening," said Carrel, who works with obese kids.

Communities, schools and health insurance companies need to do more to address the problem, he said.

He said obesity in children raises the risk they will develop diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and depression.

"We are seeing a marked increase in what we used to call adult diseases (in children)," Carrel said.

The increase in juvenile obesity is caused a variety of factors, including time spent watching television and playing video games, high-calorie foods such as soda that have little or no nutrition, and a family environment where overeating and a lack of exercise are the norm, said Safak Guven, an assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

"It (obesity) is a chronic disease that needs to be treated as such," said Guven, who also serves as clinical director of the obesity and metabolic syndrome clinic at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital.

Obesity in adults has been a growing problem for nearly a quarter century. The adult obesity rate doubled between 1980 and 2002.

In the latest study, overall adult obesity increased from 30.6% in 2001-'02 to 32.2% in 2003-'04, but nearly all the increase was in men, whose rate increased from 27.8% to 31.1% during that period.

For women, the obesity rate went from 33.3% to 33.2%.

"Basically, men are catching up to women," said lead author Ogden.

Researchers had differing opinions on whether the next survey will find a leveling off among adults.

The authors of today's study said that the obesity rate in women appears to be leveling off. Obesity in those age 60 and older declined, they also found.

Rate could hit 50%

However, Guven said he believes that if more isn't done to address the issue, the obesity rate in adults could reach 50% in the next decade.

The study also found an increase in the percentage of Americans who are overweight. In 2003-'04, 66.3% of adults were overweight, compared with 64.5% in 1999-2000 and 65.7% in 2001-'02.

Again, the increase was fueled men. In 2003-'04, 70.8% of men were overweight, compared with 70% in 2001-'02 and 67.2% in 1999-2000.

A total of 4.8% of adults were extremely obese, down from 5.1% in 2001-'02. Extreme obesity was much more common in women (6.9%) than men (2.8%).

Overweight is defined as having a body mass index of 25 or more; obese is a BMI or 30 or more; extreme obesity of a BMI of 40 or more. BMI is a formula that relates weight to height.

Inside

To figure your BMI, go to www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/ and click on "Calculate Your BMI."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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