Americans both poor,
rich increasingly hit by obesity: study
May
3, 05
Though
long seen as more of a problem among the poor, obesity is increasingly hitting
prosperous Americans, according to a study.
"There
has been a perception that poor people are more likely to be fat," said
researcher Nidhi Maheshwari who presented the study at the American Heart
Association's annual conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and
Prevention.
Researchers
looked at health data collected from 1971-1974 and compared it with data from
2001-2002, and determined that their highest income category (more than 60,000
dollars annually) had the greatest increase in obesity -- 276 percent, rising
from 9.7 percent to 26.8 percent in those periods.
Obesity
among those making less than 25,000 dollars was at 22.5 percent between
1971-1974 and 32.5 percent in 2001-2002, up 144 percent. For
the middle income category of 25,000-39,999 dollars, the obesity rate was 16.1
percent for 1971-1974 and 31.3 percent in 2001-2002, up 194 percent. For
those earning 40,000-60,000, the increase was 209 percent.
"The
inverse relation between income and obesity seen in earlier studie has
eroded," said co-author Jennifer Robinson, a University of Iowa
epidemiology professor.
"Obesity
prevalence is now similar across all income categories with obesity prevalence
in the highest income group rapidly approaching that of the lowest income
group." |