CDC: Skyrocketing obesity translates into enormous health costs

Obesity is quickly becoming a national epidemic, and the costs to treat its related ailments is approaching $150 billion a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Tuesday.

Nine states in 2009 had an obesity prevalence above 30 percent, CDC found — triple the number with such high rates in 2007. A decade ago, no state had an obesity rate above that threshold.

Different ethnic groups suffer the scourge disproportionately, the CDC found. Black women, for instance, have the highest obesity prevalence, at 41.9 percent. 

Education levels are also a factor, with non-high-school graduates reporting obesity levels of 32.9 percent.

Regional discrepancies also play a role. The South tallied an obesity prevalence of 28.4 percent.

And those numbers — based on hundreds of thousands of phone interviews where respondents volunteered their height and weight — are underestimates. Why? Because "research has found that both men and women often say they are taller than they actually are, and women often say they weigh less than they do in telephone surveys," CDC notes.

The trend doesn't come cheap.

CDC estimates obesity-related ailments — including heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes — lead to treatment costs that are about $1,400 more each year for the average obese patient than the average patient of healthy weight. In 2008 dollars, those costs totaled $147 billion, CDC said. 

"Obesity is common, serious and costly," Bill Dietz, CDC's director of nutrition, physical activity and obesity, told reporters Tuesday. "[It] affects virtually every system in the adult body. … The challenge is: How do we begin to start driving these obesity numbers downward and start reversing this trend?"

CDC officials offered a six-step plan, including efforts to encourage more physical activity; promote prolonged breast feeding; increase fruit and vegetable consumption; discourage soft drink intake; and reduce hours spent in front of the television.

"Obesity is a societal problem," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, "and it will take a societal response."