Obesity Rate Goes Down, but Epidemic Still Alarming

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The fight against obesity is gaining ground in the United States, but the epidemic continues to be alarming, according to USA Today. Obesity among adults in the U.S. has decreased at 34.9% in 2012, but it's too slight a number compared to the rate of 35.7% in 2010. This means that over 78 million adults are overweight, and the National Center for Health Statistics reports that over 50 million of these adults were Caucasians.

Epidemiologist Cynthia Ogden (National Center for Health Statistics) explains that the drop in numbers indeed makes no big difference in the fight against obesity. She said, "Even though it looks like a slight drop in the percentage of adults who are obese, this difference is not statistically significant; this is more evidence that we're not seeing a change in adult obesity," reports USA Today.

The study made by National Center for Health Statistics found that women, more than men were obese in 2011 through 2012, with the numbers showing that obesity among men decreased and was at 33.5% in 2011-12, compared with 35.5% in 2009-2010. Meanwhile, obesity among women increased at 36.1% in 2011-12, compared to 35.8% in 2009-2010, according to the UPI. The team led by Ogden used information and data from the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

President of the Obesity Society Harvey Grill explains that the numbers remain to be a cause for alarm. He explained, "The fact that we're at 35% of adult Americans who are obese is extremely troubling because their obesity will result in health problems for the majority of them," reports USA Today.

In August, a separate study was made by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and revealed that the trend of U.S. adults was becoming more health-conscious. Author of the study Dr. Christopher Murray said, "around the country, you can see huge increases in the percentage of people becoming physically active, which research tells us is certain to have health benefits," reports UPI. Murray hopes that this trend will continue to pick up, leading to significant changes in the health profile of the United States.