Obesity rate in States shows slight rise

NEW YORK — The weight problem in the United States isn’t getting any better, according to new research by the American government.

Overall, obesity figures stayed roughly the same — about 40 per cent of adults are obese and 18.5 per cent of children.

The figures represent a slight increase from the last report, but the difference is so small that it could have occurred by chance.

Experts are worried by the rate for children and teenagers, which had hovered around 17 per cent for a decade.

The two-to-five age group had the biggest rise. The years ahead will show if that is a statistical blip or marks the start of a real trend, said the report’s lead author, Dr. Craig Hales of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bad news is that the numbers didn’t go down, experts say. In recent years, state and national health officials have focused on obesity in children, who were the target of the national Let’s Move campaign launched by former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in 2010.

The report, released Friday, covers 2015 and 2016.

“This is quite disappointing. If we were expecting the trends to budge, this is when they would be budging,” said Andrew Stokes, a Boston University expert on tracking obesity.

The new figures are from an annual government survey featuring about 5,000 participants. The survey is considered the gold standard for measuring the nation’s waistline, because participants are put on a scale to verify their weight.

Obesity means not merely overweight, but seriously overweight, as determined by the body mass index calculation that uses a person’s weight and height.

Until the early 1980s, only about one in six adult Americans was obese. The rate climbed dramatically to about one in three around a decade ago, then seemed to level off for years.

Among the report’s other findings were:

• The 40 per cent rate for adults is statistically about the same as the nearly 38 per cent in the 2013-2014 survey.

• By age, the fattest adults are in their 40s and 50s. The obesity rate for that age group is 41 per cent for men and 45 per cent for women.

• By race and gender, the problem is still most common in black and Hispanic women; more than half are obese.

• Among children, the rate for the 12-to-19 age group was the same at nearly 21 per cent. For kids 6 to 11, it rose to 18 per cent, from 17 per cent.

• But for children ages 2 to 5, the rate jumped to 14 per cent from about nine per cent.