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medpundit |
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Thursday, January 02, 2003More than 44 million Americans were obese and 16.7 million people had diagnosed diabetes in 2001, according to the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers found the nation's obesity rate climbed to 20.9 percent in 2001 from 19.8 percent the year before, and the rate of diagnosed diabetes rose to 7.9 percent from 7.3 percent. Of course, the population is getting older, too. Age is a factor in both weight gain and in diabetes. And then there's the matter of our prosperity. We do such a good job of providing food to the poor that the poorest states are no longer starving, but suffering from diseases of affluence: The study confirmed previous findings that Mississippi is the state with the highest rate of obesity and Colorado the lowest. The highest rate of diagnosed diabetes was in Alabama; the lowest was in Minnesota. I can’t dissect the study, since I haven’t received my issue of JAMA yet, and I don’t have online access to the full articles, but the journal does have an insightful look at the problem by an economist that’s available for free. posted by Sydney on 1/02/2003 07:41:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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