ABSTRACT
The high prevalence of obesity among children and adults is a major public health concern in the United States (U.S.) and worldwide. Obesity has been associated with numerous adverse health consequences in both children and adults. Furthermore, childhood obesity tracks with age; youth with obesity have a greater risk of having obesity later in life. In this chapter, we focus on the prevalence of obesity by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and other characteristics in the U.S. and globally. The prevalence of high weight-for-length, a measure of early rapid weight gain, was 9.6% in 2017–2018 among U.S. infants and young children (aged ≤2 years). In 2017–2018, the prevalence of obesity was 19.3% among U.S. children (aged 2–19 years) and 42.4% among U.S. adults (aged ≥20 years). Worldwide, about 38.2 million infants and young children (aged <5 years) were classified as overweight or having obesity in 2019. Approximately 124 million children (aged 5–19 years) had obesity and over 650 million adults (aged ≥18 years) or about 13% of adults had obesity globally in 2016. Ongoing monitoring is needed to determine burden and if certain populations are more at risk for obesity as societal determinants change.
