WASHINGTON: Most adults in the United States will be obese by 2030, suggests a study, which projects the related health care spending in the country to surge to USD 956.9 billion.
The study, published in the July online issue of Obesity, shows that obesity has become a public health crisis in the US. "If these trends continue, more than 86 percent of adults will be overweight or obese by 2030 with approximately 96 percent of non-Hispanic black women and 91 percent of Mexican-American men affected," said Youfa Wang, lead author of the study.
"This would result in 1 of every 6 health care dollars spent in total direct health care costs paying for overweight and obesity-related costs, said Wang, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
According to May A. Beydoun, a former research fellow at the Bloomberg School, the health care costs attributable to obesity and overweight in the US are expected to more than double every decade.
"This would account for 15 to 17 percent of total health care costs spent," Wang said, adding "Due to the assumptions we made and the limitations of the available data, these figures are likely an underestimation of the true financial impact.
According to the Science Daily online, both the overweight and obese are at an increased risk for developing a number of health conditions, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
The report said researchers estimate that children and young adults may have a shorter life expectancy than their parents if the obesity epidemic is left unaddressed.
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