ABSTRACT
Advanced Heart Disease Section, Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School,
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
EPIDEMIOLOGY
Recent estimates of obesity prevalence among U.S. adults (1) suggest that currently, one in two individuals residing in the United States is overweight or obese as defined by a body mass index (BMI) 25 kg/m2. In addition, obesity incidence continues to rise such that the prevalence of marked obesity (BMI 40 kg/m2) has nearly tripled between 1990 and 2000. Parallel trends have been observed among children (2). Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey comparing two time periods, 1988-1994 and 1999-2000, demonstrate that among both boys and girls aged 12 to 19 years and across each of three major ethnic groups (non-Hispanic white, nonHispanic black, and Mexican-American), the prevalence of overweight as defined by a level above the 95th percentile of sex-specific BMI for age has climbed, increasing overall from 10.5% to 15.5%. These data also reveal a disproportionate increase among non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American adolescents forwhom the occurrence of overweight has increasedbyover 10%.
