A Look at Obesity Trends Nationwide

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Author(s):

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

The first 12 slides in this presentation graphically illustrate the nation's steady rise in obesity rates among adults from 1995 through 2006. The color-coded maps represent data collected through the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), the world's largest, ongoing telephone health survey system.

As steep as the rates of increase are for adults, the trends among children are even more alarming. During the past four decades, obesity rates have soared in children—increasing almost fivefold among 6- to 11-year-olds. Research shows that obese adolescents have up to an 80 percent chance of becoming obese adults. That's one of the reasons why RWJF focuses on preventing obesity among children and youth ages 3 to 18, a critical period during which lifelong habits are formed.

Rising rates of obesity are of special concern because they also are accompanied by a rise in the rates of associated chronic diseases, like diabetes. The next slide in this set provides an overview of diabetes trends among U.S. adults.

The final two slides in this presentation examine childhood obesity trends, both nationally and in Arkansas, where the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has provided support for the creation and ongoing analysis of a database that tracks body mass index among the state's public school students.

RWJF is committed to reversing the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by improving access to affordable healthy foods and increasing opportunities for physical activity in schools and communities across the nation.