Has the obesity epidemic plateaued?
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – NEW YORK, May 25, 2011 — A new Harris Poll finds no significant change this year in the proportions of adults who smoke, wear seatbelts, or are overweight or obese. Using a set of measures that have been included in Harris Polls for almost 30 years, the latest poll finds that 18% of all adults smoke cigarettes, 78% of all adults are overweight, 38% are obese and 91% of all adults claim to use seatbelts when in the front seats of cars. These numbers are virtually identical to the numbers in Harris Polls conducted in 2009 and 2010.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 1,987 adults surveyed by telephone and online between April 11 and 18, 2011 by Harris Interactive. This is the first time this survey has been conducted using both telephone interviews with online interviews conducted among those who have no landlines or who mainly use cell phones (“cell phone only” and “cell phone mostly” adults). This is necessary because of the large and growing proportion of people who cannot or are very unlikely to respond to surveys using only landlines.
The main findings of this survey include:
— 18% of all adults report smoking cigarettes, compared to 17%-20% in
Harris Polls in 2008, 2009, and 2010. These numbers are slightly lower
than the 23% to 25% who reported smoking between 2001 and 2004. In
total 22% of adults use some kind of tobacco products including those
who use pipes (2%), cigars (4%) and chewing tobacco (3%).
— Using the Body Mass Index (BMI) based on reported measures of height and
weight, the poll finds that 63% of adults are overweight, virtually
unchanged since 2010 (64%), and that 28% are obese, almost identical to
last year’s 29%. Using an older measure, the MetLife tables based on
height, weight and body frame, the numbers are a bit higher, with 78%
overweight and 38% obese.
— Fully 91% of adults now claim that they always wear seatbelts in the
front seats of cars. This is virtually unchanged for the last two
years.
— However, much has changed over the last 28 years. In 1983 when Harris
first asked these questions, 30% of adults reported smoking cigarettes,
15% of adults were obese and only 19% wore seat belts. On a year to
year basis the changes have usually been very small, and some of the
differences could be due to sampling error. It is therefore useful to
look at the changes based on the much larger samples for each 5 year
period (as shown in Table 1). This is how the 2011 findings compare
with the last two five year periods, from 2001 to 2005 and 2006 to 2010:
cigarette smoking down from 23% to 20% to 18%, obesity (using the
MetLife tables) up from 32% to 35% to 38%, and seatbelt use up from 83%
to 88% to 91%.
All of these findings are based on self reported data. There is some evidence from other surveys that self reports may slightly underestimate the numbers of people who have “socially undesirable” risk factors such as smoking, being obese or not wearing seatbelts. However the identical questions have been asked almost every year since 1983 and we are confident that the trends reflect real changes in the population over the last 28 Years.
So what?
It is very difficult to detect small changes from year to year but these data may suggest that the so-called “obesity epidemic” has slowed and may have even topped out or plateaued.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world’s leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
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