Severe obesity still rising fast in the US: Study
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Women sit on a bench in New York's Times Square on May 31, 2012. The number of United States (US) residents who are severely obese shot up by 70 per cent in the past decade or so, though the increase has slowed in more recent years, according to a US study. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The number of United States (US) residents who are severely obese shot up by 70 per cent in the past decade or so, though the increase has slowed in more recent years, according to a US study.
Between 2000 and 2010, the proportion of US residents who were severely obese - at least 45 kg overweight - rose from 4 per cent to almost 7 per cent, said researchers whose findings appeared in the International Journal of Obesity.
The increase showed signs of slowing after 2005, they added.
But the bad news is that the severely obese remain the fastest-growing segment of obese Americans, said study leader Roland Sturm, a senior economist at the non-profit research institute RAND Corporation.
