Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Public Health Leadership Program
Abstract
Obesity is quickly becoming the number one health threat to Americans today. Until recently, obesity was not even considered a disease. Now, obesity results in an estimated 300,000 premature deaths per year and more than thirty health conditions are being researched for their association with obesity.1 Astoundingly, $102.2 billion in 1999 was contributed to the direct care costs of obesity. The U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD called obesity the greatest threat to public health today. It kills more Americans every year than AIDS, all cancers and all accidents combined. Obesity is an enormous public health problem, but seems to fall in the shadow of other public health problems. According to Storm and Wells, Americans continue to address the health hazards of smoking and have not given obesity the same attention even though it is clearly the top health problem and continues to rise in all segments of the population? Storm and Wells feel more effective clinical and public health approaches are urgently needed. Storm and Wells also note a drastically high portion of the population is affected by obesity and its negative health consequence. They report 23 percent of Americans are obese, an additional 36 percent are overweight (total of nearly 60 percent), compared to 19 percent of Americans being daily smokers, 14 percent living in poverty and only 6 percent are heavy drinkers. This clearly points out that obesity is the number one health concern facing Americans today.