The Obesity Epidemic in the US
Robert Perez
5/05/2018
CDC Obesity Trends In The US
Introduction
Obesity has become a public health crisis in the United States. Obesity has become one of the biggest health concerns in communities across the country with about 70 percent of county officials ranking it as a leading problem in their county.(P, Alberti (2014)) While trends over the past few decades show that obesity has been on the rise drastically. Over the past few years however the obesity rates have begun to level off. What scares me most however is if the trend of obesity rates from the past few decades continue to increase, the children of today may be the first generation that sees their lifespans shortened maybe even shorter than their parents.
Obesity is caused by a number of reasons such as lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors. Obesity is creating problems that can be linked to significant health and social difficulties for people. This research focuses on three key factors age, education and income and attempts to figure out wether individuals are more at risk of becoming obese based on their age, their level of education or the amount of money they earn. The graph below indicates the relationship between obesity rates in the US and the factors effecting these rates.
Literature Review
Despite growing recognition of the problem, the obesity epidemic continues in the US and obesity rates are increasing around the world. According to the the NCBI, “The latest estimates are that approximately 34% of adults and 15-20% of children and adolescents in the U.S. are obese. Across the United States, more than one in three adults and one in six children (ages 2-19) are obese — and one in 11 young children (ages 2-5) are obese.(NCHS, (2016)) Obesity affects every segment of the U.S. population.(Mitchell, N., Catenacci, V., Wyatt, H. R., & Hill, J. O. (2011)) More than one-third of adults in the US are obese.(CDC) The CDC says that among non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican American men, those with higher incomes are more likely to have obesity than those with a lower income. projection models show that by the year 2030, ~90% (86.3%) of all American adults would become overweight or obese and 51.1% of them would become obese. (Wang, Beydoun (2008))
Individuals who are obese are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, some forms of cancer, dementia and a number of other health concerns. Children who are overweight or obese are at greater risk for high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. And the longer children are overweight or obese, the more likely they are to remain so into adulthood. At a broader level, high obesity rates also have a significant impact on the larger community. Obesity increases the risk of many chronic diseases in children and adults." A large amount of research is now directed toward better understanding and treating obesity, and substantial public health efforts are directed toward reducing obesity rates. To date, however, there is little evidence of success in reversing the epidemic in the U.S.
Obesity is also a large financial issue. The obesity crisis has costs the US more than $150 billion in healthcare costs every year.(Kim DD, A. (2016)) Obesity rates has exceeded 35 percent in five states, 30 percent in 25 states and 25 percent in 46 states. (BRFSS, (2015)) Nationally, nearly 38 percent of adults are obese. (NHANES, 2014) Obesity rates are higher amongst women (40.4 percent) compared to men (25 percent). Women are also almost twice as likely to be extremely obese compared to men. (Flegal KM (2005-2014))
There are significant racial and ethnic differences amongst obesity rates. Obesity rates are significantly higher among blacks (48 percent) and latinos(43 percent) than among whites (36 percent) and asian americans (13 percent).(NHANES, 2013-2014) the differences are highest among women with Blacks having a obesity rate of about 58 percent, Latinas at about 47 percent, and Whites at about 38 percent. Men have a rate at around 36 percent for all three races.(Flegal KM, (2005-2014)) Lastly their was also income and education differences. Nearly 33 percent of adults who did not graduate from high school were considered obese compared to about 22 percent of those who graduated from college. (NHANES, 2010)
Research Questions
Are individuals more susceptible to becoming overweight at a certain age?
Is there a relationship between degree of education, or income, on obesity?
Furthermore, have the percentages of obese people amongst various groups changed at all in the past 5 years?
Data and Variables
The data for this study was obtained from the CDC. This dataset includes data on adult’s diet, physical activity, and weight status from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. This data is used for DNPAO’s Data, Trends, and Maps database, which provides national and state specific data on obesity, nutrition, and physical activity. The variables we examined from the dataset were Pct_obese(rate of obesity), state, age, education and income. The mean percent of obesity was found and compared with each of the factors mentioned. This was followed by an ANOVA test and then illustrated in a nice bar graph to further illustrate the relationship between the variables.
Description Of The Variables:
1.Question: Percentage of obese adults, percentage of overweight adults.
2.State: full name of state
3.R: Race/ethnicity of respondents
4.Pct_obese: Percentage of respondents who fit the questions above
5.Gender: Gender of respondents “male”“female”
6.Age: Age of respondents
7.Income: Yearly Income of Respondents
8:Education: Level of education Completed
Results
The regression models shown do not have enough information to make any inference at the age, education and income level. We cannot make inferences on individuals on only state level modeling results, this is ecological fallacy. However, we can see what the models show and if the relationship is true. We can also see the difference in obesity rates among the factors listed.
Mean Obesity rate over five year period
The results were in line with the literature search. Figure two shows the mean obesity rates by year from 2011 (27 percent) to the year 2016 (30 percent). The table shows a steady increase in mean obesity rates over this five year period. While this increase of just over 2% may seem low. In the overall grand scheme of things this is a large increase in the amount of people. In figure 3 it shows that states among the south region are the states with the highest over mean obesity rates. The states in the Northeast region were at the bottom for overall mean obesity rates.
Differences in obesity rates by age
Figure 4 shows that obesity rates peak around the ages of 35-64. People ages 65 and older have a slightly lower mean obesity rate then the above interval. However, whats most apparent about the table above is that people in their early adult years have the lowest rate of obesity as opposed to individuals between the ages of 35-44 which have the highest rate of obesity. The regression model shows that based on the r-squared value that 67% of the change in obesity is explained by age.
Differences in obesity rates by education
Figure 6 shows the mean obesity rate by education. Education has a strong relationship in determining the mean obesity rates as apparent in that individuals with less than high school education had the highest mean obesity rates of 33 percent when compared to college graduates having a mean obesity rate of about 23 percent. The regression model ran shows that eduction has a statistically significant effect on obesity rates at a 95% confidence level. The r-squared also suggest that 51% of change in obesity rates can be explained by the level of education an individual has attained. Finally when looking at the mean obesity rates by income. Figure 7 provides the mean rate of obesity by income level. As we can see individuals who had an income of 75,000 dollars or greater had the lowest rate of obesity as opposed to those who made less than $15,000.
Conclusion
The relationship between obesity rates and the factors tested showed what was previously researched. However, ecological fallacy was mentioned because obesity rates is an individual-level thing to be tested.
In order to understand how to head this country in the proper direction when it comes to obesity we must first understand the factors that are effecting this countrys rates of obesity. In the above tables we were able to look at a seperate demographic group at a time and see if it significantly effected the percentage of adults that were obese in our country. Only after understand the key factors making us obese can we than as a country put forward the effort to make a change. From the above results we see that age, education and income all were keys factors in the percentage of obese people in America. Seems that if we educate ourselves, and earn a large income we have a better chance at not being obese.
This study has its limitations and therefore this study does not guarantee that these factors are the direct cause of obesity.
References
Alberti P, Sutton K, Baer I. Community Health Needs Assessments: Engaging Community Partners to Improve Health. Association of American Medical Colleges. Analysis in Brief. 2014;14(11). https://www.aamc.org/download/419276/data/dec2014communityhealth. pdf. Accessed May 18, 2018.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ( 2010). Nutrition.
Flegal KM, Kruszon-Moran D, Carroll MD, et al. Trends in obesity among adults in the United States, 2005 to 2014. JAMA. 2016;315(21):2284-2291. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.6458.
Kim DD, Basu A. Estimating the medical care costs of obesity in the United States: systematic review, meta-analysis, and empirical analysis. Value Health. 2016;19(5):602-13. doi:10.1016/j.jval.2016.02.008.
National Center for Health Statistics. NCHS Fact Sheet: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/factsheets/factsheet_nhanes.pdf. January 2016. Accessed May 18, 2018.
Mitchell, N., Catenacci, V., Wyatt, H. R., & Hill, J. O. (2011). OBESITY: OVERVIEW OF AN EPIDEMIC. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 34(4), 717â“732.
Reichmann, Vanessa, “Does Fruit and Vegetable Intake Decrease Risk for Obesity in Children and Adolescents?” (2009). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 8.
Young, L. R., & Nestle, M. (2002). The Contribution of Expanding Portion Sizes to the US Obesity Epidemic. American Journal of Public Health, 92(2), 246â“249.