The Concept of CMR

Prevalence of obesity

Though obesity is increasing rapidly in almost every part of the world, overweight and obesity rates are higher in the United States than in any other developed country (13). A recent report from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)—which examined a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population—revealed that more than two thirds of the adult population (>20 years) was either overweight (BMI>25 kg/m²) or obese (BMI>30 kg/m²) (1). The sample included 4,431 adults and showed that overweight/obesity was higher in men (70.8 ± 1.4%) than in women (51.7 ± 2.6%). The highest prevalence of overweight/obesity was among men 40 to 50 years of age (78.2 ± 2.8%). The prevalence of overweight/obesity in women in this age subgroup was 68.1 ± 3.1%. The sample was also analyzed according to ethnicity (non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican Americans). The highest rates of overweight/obesity were found in the non-Hispanic black population (76.1 ± 1.5%) and among Mexican Americans (75.8 ± 2.6%). This prevalence was 64.2 ± 1.6% in the non-Hispanic white population. When these results were compared to previous results from the 1999 NHANES survey, it was found that obesity among men had increased significantly between 1999 and 2004 whereas obesity among women had not increased over the same 6 year period (1). The study also made the unfortunate finding that obesity is increasing in children and adolescents 2 to 19 years of age, noting that 17.1 ± 1.2% of them had excess body weight.