1 in 5 Americans Die from Obesity
After hearing the news about 1 in 4 Hawaii adults are obese, it is no surprise to hear that 1 in 5 Americans die from obesity in the recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
According to the online article from Bariatric News, One in Five Americans Die From Obesity, Obesity-related mortality accounts for 18% of deaths among Americans between the ages of 40 to 85.
“A 5-year-old growing up today is living in an environment where obesity is much more the norm than was the case for a 5-year-old a generation or two ago. Drink sizes are bigger, clothes are bigger, and greater numbers of a child’s peers are obese,” said co-author Dr Bruce Link, professor of epidemiology and sociomedical sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “And once someone is obese, it is very difficult to undo. So it stands to reason that we won’t see the worst of the epidemic until the current generation of children grows old.”
The study is the first to account for differences in age, birth cohort, sex, and race in analysing Americans’ risk for death from obesity. The new research shows that obesity is far more consequential than previously recognised, that the impact of the epidemic is only beginning to be felt, and that some population groups are affected much more powerfully than others.
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