Vital Signs: State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults --- United States, 2009

Vital Signs: State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults --- United States, 2009
Weekly
August 6, 2010 / 59(30);951-955


On August 3, this report was posted as an MMWR Early Release on the MMWR website (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr).

ABSTRACT
Background: Obesity is a costly condition that can reduce quality of life and increases the risk for many serious chronic diseases and premature death. The U.S. Surgeon General issued the Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity in 2001, and in 2007, no state had met the Healthy People 2010 objective to reduce obesity prevalence among adults to 15%.

Methods: CDC used 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data to update estimates of national and state-specific obesity prevalence. Obesity was calculated based on self-reported weight and height and defined as body mass index (weight [kg] / height [m]2) ≥30.

Results: Overall self-reported obesity prevalence in the United States was 26.7%. Non-Hispanic blacks (36.8%), Hispanics (30.7%), those who did not graduate from high school (32.9%), and persons aged 50--59 years (31.1%) and 60--69 years (30.9%) were disproportionally affected. By state, obesity prevalence ranged from 18.6% in Colorado to 34.4% in Mississippi; only Colorado and the District of Columbia (19.7%) had prevalences of < 20%; nine states had prevalences of ≥ 30%.

Conclusions: In 2009, no state met the Healthy People 2010 obesity target of 15%, and the self-reported overall prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults had increased 1.1 percentage points from 2007.

Implications for Public Health Practice: Obesity should be addressed through a comprehensive approach across multiple settings and sectors that can change individual nutrition and physical activity behaviors and the environments and policies that affect these behaviors. New and continued national, state, and community-level surveillance of obesity, its behavioral risk factors, and the environments and policies that affect these behaviors is critical to monitor progress in obesity prevention and to target interventions.

Over the past decade, obesity has become recognized as a national health threat and a major public health challenge. In 2007--2008, based on measured weights and heights (1), approximately 72.5 million adults in the United States were obese (CDC, unpublished data, 2010). Obese adults are at increased risk for many serious health conditions, including coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, and premature death (2,3). Adult obesity also is associated with reduced quality of life, social stigmatization, and discrimination (2,3). From 1987 to 2001, diseases associated with obesity accounted for 27% of the increases in U.S. medical costs (4). For 2006, medical costs associated with obesity were estimated at as much as $147 billion (2008 dollars); among all payers, obese persons had estimated medical costs that were $1,429 higher than persons of normal weight (5). In 2001, the Surgeon General called for strong public health action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity (3).

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) measures height and weight through self-report in state-based surveys; data are released every year. In 2000, a Healthy People 2010 objective was established to reduce the prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States to 15%.* This objective is based on obesity prevalence from measured height and weight among participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Because NHANES provides only national and not state-specific estimates, CDC uses the state-based BRFSS data and applies the 15% prevalence figure as a reasonable target for self-reported obesity prevalence in the states. As of 2007 (6), no state had met the Healthy People 2010 objective to reduce the prevalence of obesity among U.S. adults to 15%. To characterize the most recent trends, CDC used data from the 2009 BRFSS survey to estimate the national and state-specific prevalence of obesity among adults aged ≥18 years.

open here to see the full-text:
Vital Signs: State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults --- United States, 2009