United States: A new study warns that by 2050, four out of five people in the United States could be overweight or obese which ultimately means about almost 213 million adults and 45 million children and young adults will be carrying extra weight in the next 25 years.
The study also portrays that obesity will increase faster than being overweight, which is even more concerning. This was reported in The Lancet journal on November 14.
Using such rates, the researchers estimate that by 2050, two in three adults in the United States, one in three teens, and one in five children will be obese.
These additional calories will foster a prevalence of chronic diseases in the nation, according to Emmanuela Gakidou, lead study author conducted at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
As reported by the HealthDay, “Overweight and obesity lead to severe health complications: Many of these are happening at a younger age – diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, cancer, mental health disorders and even premature death,” said Dr Gakidou in a journal press release.
“The health system and economic cost will be also felt at higher levels as more than a quarter of billion people in the USA including more than the half of the children and adolescents will be living with overweight or obesity by 2050.”
For the study, researchers extrapolated overweight and obesity expectations using 134 different data sets, encompassing nationally representative survey data, investigators reported.
They estimated that overweight and obesity prevalence in the adult population stood at 72% in 2021.
Of these, obesity has been rising sharply, raising a two-fold in the past three decades; in men: 19 percent in 1990 to 42 percent in 2021, and in women: 23 percent in 1990 to 46 percent in 2021.
“In our study, the lack of response to a rising overweight and obesity burden in the USA over the last few decades is effectively exposed,” Gakidou said.
The overall obesity rate is significantly higher in the South, and this is projected to remain the situation in the future, the researchers noted.
For instance, the same researchers projected that 66% of men in West Virginia and Kentucky and 63% of women in twelve states will be obese by the mentioned year. The states that are expected to register especially high obesity rates include Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas and Illinois.
They also established that obesity is increasingly being experienced at early ages.