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Obesity — United States, 1999–2010

	Supplement Volume 62, Supplement, No. 3 November 22, 2013 PDF of this issue

Obesity — United States, 1999–2010

Supplements

November 22, 2013 / 62(03);120-128

Ashleigh L. May, PhD

David Freedman, PhD

Bettylou Sherry, PhD

Heidi M. Blanck, PhD

Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC

Corresponding author: Ashleigh L. May, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC. Telephone: 770-488-8062. E-mail: amay@cdc.gov.

Introduction

Obesity is a major public health problem affecting adults and children in the United States. Since 1960, the prevalence of adult obesity in the United States has nearly tripled, from 13% in 1960–1962 to 36% during 2009–2010 (1,2). Since 1970, the prevalence of obesity has more than tripled among children, from 5% in 1971–1974 (3) to 17% in 2009–2010 (4,5). Although the prevalence of obesity is high among all U.S. population groups, substantial disparities exist among racial/ethnic minorities and vary on the basis of age, sex, and socioeconomic status.
This report is part of the second CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report (CHDIR). The 2011 CHDIR (6) was the first CDC report to assess disparities across a wide range of diseases, behavior risk factors, environmental exposures, social determinants, and health-care access. The topic presented in this report is based on criteria that are described in the 2013 CHDIR Introduction (7). This report provides more current information regarding what was presented in the 2011 CHDIR (8). The purposes of this report are to discuss and raise awareness of differences in the characteristics of persons who are obese and to prompt actions to reduce these disparities.

Methods

To assess disparities and trends over time in obesity prevalence among adults aged ≥18 years and children and adolescents aged 2–17 years, CDC analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2008 that were included in the 2011 CDC Health Disparities and Inequities Report (CHDIR) (8) and data from NHANES for 2009–2010. To assess disparities and trends over time in obesity prevalence among adults aged ≥18 years and children and adolescents aged 2–17 years, CDC analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2008 that were included in the 2011 CDC Health Disparities and Inequities Report (CHDIR) (8) and data from NHANES for 2009–2010. CDC examined obesity prevalence by sex, age, and race/ethnicity and by the following variables that were not included in the previous report: educational attainment, disability status, country of birth, and language spoken at home. Geographic location was not examined because this information was not available in the publicly available datasets, and educational attainment was analyzed rather than family income because a smaller number of participants had missing data for educational attainment than for income. In addition, for many persons, income was categorized into very broad ranges (e.g., <$20,000 and ≥$20,000). The highest income category was ≥$75,000.