Obesity Statistics

In 1999, The Surgeon General's office determines that 61% of all American adults are overweight or obese accounting for 300,000 deaths annually in the U.S. Visually, it would be equal to taking the total population of Salem, Oregon and doubling the count, then wiping it off the map entirely.

In the 2001 report, The Surgeon General's office identified overweight and obesity as a public health risk, costing the general public as much as $117 billion a year and posing as great a danger as poverty, smoking, or drinking.

The estimated $117 billion public cost of overweight and obesity statistics is composed of $61 billion in direct costs; this includes medical expenditures for preventative, diagnostic, and treatment services. The additional $56 billion is associated with indirect costs; including lost wages, disability, and or premature death. However none of these cost estimates include the price of pain and suffering associated with this disorder.

While current costs of morbid obesity are disturbing, future costs raise a fire alarm. It is projected that the cause of weight related deaths will increase and account for more than tobacco related death as the latter continues to decrease. Obesity in children today can start as early as infancy. Nearly 11 percent of all preschoolers were considered obese in 2000. Researchers who study cause of obesity in both children and adults agree that it is a combination of genetic, environmental and safety factors.

In general, America is living on the fast track. Families are too rushed to practice healthy eating habits. Instead Americans are optioning out for fast food and prepared meals all of which can be higher in sodium, processed sugars, fat and preservatives. Couple this with a lack of exercise, a cocooning lifestyle and complete bombardment of food promotions with gimmicks and its just spells out trouble.

Annually American children see 10,000 advertisements for food items with 95% of those belonging in the junk food category: candy, soft drinks, fast food and sugared cereals. This leads a path straight to a generation that can not distinguish the difference between proper nutrition and what should be considered an occasional treat food. It also increases the chance of diabetes, blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, disability and ultimately death.

More than 300 million people worldwide are at risk of developing diabetes. Currently, the estimated annual healthcare costs of diabetes worldwide for people aged 20 to 79 is approximately $153 billion. The Diabetes Atlas Report predicts the number of people with diabetes will rise to 333 million by 2025 from 194 million. Type 2 diabetes accounts for up to 6% of total healthcare expenditure in eight European countries. Diabetes is now one of the most common non-communicable diseases globally.

Complete lifestyles change will have to be made to compensate for the rising costs of healthcare. Direct costs for medical services indicate a redirection of economic activity while giving consumers less disposable income.

In the United States alone there are more than 16 million Americans who have diabetes. This is 1 in every 18 persons. In the last 10 years increases were reported among all adults. A 70% increase has been seen in people aged 30 to 39. Each year 65,000 people diagnosed with diabetes.

November 14 is designated World Diabetes Day as it is the birthday of Frederick Banting, who along with Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in October 1921.

Information Resources:
CNN News
Diabetes Atlas Report
International Diabetes Federation
Nurse Week
Reuters
The Associated Press
Thomas Brinkhoff: City Population
US Department of Agriculture
Yahoo News