Summary
A new Lancet study reveals nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, a sharp rise from just over half in 1990.
Obesity among adults doubled to over 40%, while rates among girls and women aged 15–24 nearly tripled to 29%.
The study highlights significant health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, and shortened life expectancy, alongside projected medical costs of up to $9.1 trillion over the next decade.
Experts stress obesity’s complex causes—genetic, environmental, and social—and call for structural reforms like food subsidies, taxes on sugary drinks, and expanded treatment access.
3/4 of US polled
Ok, thank you. I was seeing 3/4 (75%) and 40% and was very confused lol.
Overweight and obese are two different categories. 40% are obese. Nearly 75% are overweight or obese.
Oh dear :(
Yes that’s how statistics work.
Well 69 is actually closer to 2/3 anyway
Lmao yeah I’m not sure what the commenter is implying? The question we should be asking is if the polled population is representative of the general population.
Do they expect the study to poll the entire US population?
I’m positive the Lancet will manage to produce a representative sample and sample size sufficient to ensure this
Ok so I looked in to their sources and boy, you’re under selling it.
They used 130+ sources of 10’s of thousands of surveyed people, each. Typical sample sizes were 70,000+.
This is a meta analysis. The number of people contributing to this analysis is wide enough to put to rest any doubt that it’s a representative sample ten times over.
Arrogantly appending “polled” to those figures is like proudly proclaiming that teen pregnancies drop off sharply after age 19.