Nearly half of all US adults will have obesity by 2030

By 2030, 48.9% of adults in the United States will have obesity, according to a study published inThe New England Journal of Medicine.

Zachary J. Ward, MPH,study author and programmer/analyst for the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the findings indicate that interventions both inside and outside the doctor’s office are needed to help lower the rate of obesity.

“Clinicians have an important role to play in identifying patients most at risk and helping prevent further weight gain and addressing upstream social and cultural determinants of obesity,” he told Healio Primary Care.

Ward noted that previous research has shown that policy changes, such assugar-sweetened beverage taxes,help reduce obesity rates.

For the study, researchers used state and sub-group data from more than 6.3 million adults over a span of more than 20 years to calculate the following new findings for 2030:

• Obesity’s prevalencewill be higher than 50% in 29 states and not below 35% in any state.
• Severe obesity will impact nearly one in four adult Americans, and the prevalence will be even higher in 25 states.
• Severe obesity will likely become the most common BMI category among 27.6% of all women, 31.7% of all non-Hispanic black adults and 31.7% of all low-income adults in the United States.

The findings were part of a larger research project called CHOICES (Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study), a program that helps state and city decision-makers identifyobesity prevention strategies“that offer the best value for money in their local context,” according to Ward.

Researchers wrote that as individual states offer more obesity-related services for adult Medicaid beneficiaries, the findings ”have substantial implications for future health care costs.”

Below, Healio Primary Care provides some of its previous coverage on obesity prevention efforts.- by Janel Miller

Plant-based diet may prevent obesity in middle-aged, older adults

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Reducing sugar content in sweetened beverages could prevent obesity, diabetes

A reduction in free sugars added to sugar-sweetened beverages by 40% over 5 years, without the use of artificial sweeteners, could prevent 1.5 million cases of overweight and obesity and 300,000 cases of type 2 diabetes over 20 years, according modeling study data published inThe Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.Read more.

National Lipid Association president highlights initiative to prevent obesity

In this video from a National Lipid Association meeting, the association's president provided insight on how patients can change their behavior to prevent obesity.Watch video.

Parent education interventions associated with modest results in childhood obesity prevention

An intensive behavioral intervention for children with overweight and their parents that included skills-building sessions and phone calls did not lead to changes in BMI trajectory after 3 years, whereas a smaller parenting education intervention for parents of young infants was associated with a modest reduction in BMI z score during the same period, according to findings from two studies published inJAMA.Read more.

Childhood obesity prevention possible with improved health before pregnancy

Modifying individual early risk factors before and soon after birth can help reduce a child’s risk for obesity later in life, according to recent study findings published inThe American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.Read more.

Disclosure:他alio Primary Care could not confirm relevant disclosures at the time of publication.