American figures fatten

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By Jennifer Harper

The future population of America could be very, very hefty, according to an analysis released Monday by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

If the nation's weight gain continues on the same track, 86 percent of all American adults will be overweight or obese by 2030 - the percentage reaching 100 percent of the general population by 2048, the study found.

"The potential for all American adults to become overweight or obese is a reality," said Dr. Youfa Wang, an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health who led the study that included researchers from AHRQ and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

"Our analyses clearly show an alarming picture of the future obesity epidemic and related challenges," he said.

Certain segments of the population are particularly at risk.

The findings also predicted that 97 percent of black women and 91 percent of Mexican-American men will be overweight in just more than two decades. In addition, 100 percent of black women will be overweight or obese by 2034 - 14 years earlier than the overall population.

Among white women, 88 percent were projected to be overweight or obese by 2030, along with 73 percent of black men and 88 percent of white men. Among Mexican-American women, the figure was 87 percent.

Black men statistically emerged as the leanest group. The study predicted that 100 percent of their population would not be overweight or obese until the year 2095 - compared with the year 2049 for white men.

The study, which was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Agriculture, deemed the obesity trend "a public health crisis." It also predicted that objectives set by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Healthy People 2010" program - which aims to reduce obesity by 15 percent among adults - would not be met.

The consortium of researchers based its conclusions on decades of national health and nutrition data collected between 1971 and 2004 by the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and the U.S. Census Bureau.