Overweight and obesity as a public health issue
Overweight and obesity are epidemic within the United States. The 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that:
- Roughly 30% of adults aged 20 years and older — nearly 59 million people — were obese (BMI >? 30).
- 64% of U.S adults aged 20 years and older were either overweight or obese (BMI > ?25).
- 15% of children and adolescents aged 6–19 years were overweight (BMI for age and gender > 95th percentile).
Within Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated health care delivery system, an estimated 1.6 million adult members are obese and nearly another 2 million are overweight.
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