Obesity continues to be Americans' serious health problem
In spite of the Obama Administration’s all-out war against childhood obesity, statistics show that it is running out of control across the nation. It is becoming the most serious epidemic in America. It is ironic that children from around the world suffer malnutrition from lack of food or lack of healthy foods but America is over-eating. Statistics from the Center for Disease Control shows that 34% of American adults are overweight, while 17% percent of US children are obese, tripling the percentage 30 years ago.
Obesity, if not prevented, will have a detrimental effects leading to many illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Add to these illnesses are the psychosocial consequences to children which includes low self-esteem and lower quality of life which may lead to depression and making obesity-related medical costs surge. In fact, a new research shows that nearly 17% or around $168 billion of US health care cost is attributed to obesity, making an impact on medical spending of the government.
Chad Meyerhoefer of Lehigh University and John Cawley of Cornell University did the new research. It was released this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-partisan ands a non-profit research organization. A study released last year estimated that medical costs caused by obesity have reached 147 billion or 9% of the total medical costs. It also estimates that obesity adds about $1,400 to a person’s annual medical billing. It has now doubled, exceeding $2,800 based on the new research.
A federal survey of US citizens and their doctors and other medical source was used by Cawley and Meyerhoefer as reference to their research. It is considered the most complete information on health care cost in the country. They were a bit surprised at first for coming up with large estimates however Cawley noted that obesity is clearly a major burden on society and considered an epidemic.
Kenneth Thorpe, a health policy researcher, hailed Cawley and Meyerhoefer for the figures. He said that the stats are the most recent and perhaps statistically sound estimates that have come out to date. Accordingly, this approximation should draw attention to invest more in obesity-fighting measures, Thorpe added. Parents need to create healthy diets for children that take them out of the zone of childhood obesity.
