According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 66 percent of the adult American population are categorized as being overweight or obese.
In 2000, obesity was estimated to contribute to about 400,000 deaths in the United States.
Since 1993, the prevalence of Americans who are obese increased by more than 61 percent.
In the United States, the number of bariatric procedures climbed from 20,000 in 1996 to more than 100,000 in 2003, and a senior analyst at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that 475,000 patients ages 65 to 69 will qualify for the procedure by 2010.
Economic impact
Obesity accounts for 9 percent of national health care expenditures, or approximately $93 billion in 2002 dollars.
The estimated direct cost of medical conditions related to overweight and obesity are:
Heart disease, $8.8 billion
Type 2 diabetes, $98 billion
Hypertension, $4.1 billion
The estimated cost of obesity in a hypothetical 1-million-member health plan is $29 per member per month.
Over a nine-year period, overweight (body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 29.9) spend 37 percent more on prescription drugs; obese (BMI >= 30) spend twice as much.
Employees with a BMI >= 40 had twice as many workers compensation claims as employees at their recommended weight.
The results of a 2007 study quantifying age-specific and lifetime costs for overweight and obese adults estimates the lifetime attributable costs of obesity reach as high as $29,460 depending on a person's age, gender and race.
Life expectancy
The risk of death for people with a BMI >= 25 at age 50 is 20 percent to 40 percent higher than those with a BMI of less than 25.
Obesity was associated with double the mortality risk in men and a 60 percent increase in women compared with those of normal weight.
Comorbidity
Diabetes: 86 percent of those 20 years and older who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese and 53 percent are obese.
Heart disease: Heart disease is twice as common in obese people as in normal weight people.
Cancer: Weight gain during adulthood is a consistent predictor of breast cancer. Obese men have consistently been found to have an increased risk for colon cancer. Obesity is associated with increased risk of kidney, endometrial, and esophageal cancers.
Knee osteoarthritis: Being 10 pounds overweight increases the force on the knee by 30 pounds for each step. Among obese women, 11 pounds of weight loss is associated with a drop of greater than 50 percent in the risk of osteoarthritis of the knee.
Metabolic syndrome (MeS): 64 million US residents—23 percent of the U.S. adult population—have MeS. Thirty-three percent of the working population has MeS and cost $259 more per member per month than healthy employees.
Benefits of weight loss
Modest weight loss of 5 percent to 10 percent of baseline weight leads to improvement in cardiometabolic risk factors.
Weight loss of 10 percent of baseline body weight corresponds to 30 percent loss of intra-abdominal fat with associated metabolic improvement.
