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Socioeconomics of Obesity

  • Chapter
Treatment of the Obese Patient

Part of the book series: Contemporary Endocrinology ((COE))

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Abstract

The past two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the prevalence of obesity in the US population. Although increasing obesity was observed in every sociodemographic group, at every point in time groups with lower education, African Americans and Native Americans, and women in lower income households had higher rates of obesity and related chronic conditions such as diabetes. Also noteworthy is the much faster increase of severe obesity compared with moderate obesity, which added further strain to the health care system and proved especially challenging to health care providers. We provide data on the populationwide trends in weight gain, economic consequences of health care cost growth and the socioeconomic disparities in obesity and diabetes. We further di scuss the socioeconomic and environmental changes that are likely underlying mechanisms for the obesity epidemic and related disparities. We conclude the chapter by discussing implications of these trends for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and challenges and opportunities faced by the health care system and providers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA

    Roland Sturm PhD & Yuhua Bao PhD

Authors
  1. Roland Sturm PhD
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  2. Yuhua Bao PhD
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL

    Robert F. Kushner MD

  2. Division of Endocrinology, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO

    Daniel H. Bessesen MD

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© 2007 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Sturm, R., Bao, Y. (2007). Socioeconomics of Obesity. In: Kushner, R.F., Bessesen, D.H. (eds) Treatment of the Obese Patient. Contemporary Endocrinology. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-400-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-400-1_9

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-735-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-400-1

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