If the United States doesn’t start getting its obesity problem in check, 13 states could have adult-obesity rates higher than 60 percent by 2030, according to a report released last week by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
It suggests that the key to preventing those projections from becoming reality is turning around the childhood-obesity epidemic.
Titled “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2012,” the report estimates that every state could have an adult-obesity rate of 44 percent or higher within the next 20 years, assuming obesity rates continue increasing along their current trajectory.
That would spell trouble for states’ health-care costs, as nine states could potentially see a 20 percent jump in obesity-related costs, according to the report. Overall, medical costs for treatment of preventable obesity-related diseases are estimated to increase from $48 billion per year in 2012 to $66 billion in 2030.
