HHS HealthBeat (June 1, 2010)

Heavy younger

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Researchers say Americans are getting obese at younger ages. They say it showed up in national data on children and adults. The researchers looked at the ages in which 20 percent of a generation was obese. Twenty percent of people born between 1966 and 1985 were obese in their 20s. But 20 percent of people born between 1926 and 1935 were not obese until they were in their 50s.

At the University of Michigan, Joyce Lee:

"Americans are getting heavier younger, and they’re carrying that extra weight for longer periods of their lifetime, which will likely lead to decreases in life expectancy even larger than previously predicted." (10 seconds)

The study in the International Journal of Obesity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 21, 2011