As obesity continues to rise in the United States, the epidemic will have a devastating effect on the future health of Americans and their healthcare system.
 
12/13/17
 
By Shawn Radcliffe
 
More than half of current children and teens in the United States could be obese by the time they are 35, according to a new study.
Unless the trend is reversed, this will have a devastating impact on the health of those Americans in years to come, along with the country’s healthcare system and economy.
 
Using a computer simulation, researchers estimated that 57 percent of today’s youth ages 2 through 19 years will be obese when they are 35 years old.
Ken Thorpe, PhD, chairman for the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, called the results “startling, both in terms of health and healthcare spending.”
 
To put this into perspective, currently 35 to 40 percent of 35-year-olds are obese, study author Zachary Ward of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston told Reuters Health.
 
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