New research shows that the fastest growing group of people among the obese population in the U.S. is the severely obese—people who are at least 100 pounds above the appropriate body weight.
Obesity is also on the rise among the elderly in both the U.S. and Europe, according to another study.
In an analysis of federal figures on obesity among all age groups, experts at the nonprofit RAND Corporation found that between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of severely obese Americans rose from 3.9 percent to 6.6 percent—an increase of almost 70 percent. That percentage translates into more than 15 million morbidly obese Americans. Women are twice as likely as men to be severely obese.
However, there are positive signs: Despite the overall increase in severe obesity, the trend has flattened since 2005.
Lead stidu author Roland Sturm, RAND’s chief economist, said that despite that statistic, obesity remains a critical problem in the U.S. “The proportion of people at the high end of the weight scale continues to increase faster than any other group of obese people, despite increased public attention on the risks of obesity,” he said in a statement.
Statistics have shown that more than one third of the U.S. adult population is obese.
The findings were published in the “International Journal of Obesity.”
