September 1, 2018 — Yes, you can spot neighborhoods with high obesity rates from outer space. But it’s not about the people you can see. It’s about the physical features of neighborhoods that provide clues about where obesity lives. A new paper in JAMA Network Open explains. Spotting Features That Predict More Obesity Adyasha Maharana and Elaine Okanyene Nsoesie […]
August 23, 2018 — We find an odd bit of logic woven into a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics this month. Overweight and obesity is becoming common in teens, so it’s tough for them to think of it as abnormal. So fewer teens are worrying about losing weight. And thus, those adolescents are missing out on opportunities for obesity […]
August 7, 2018 — Childhood obesity generates a lot of talk. But it might surprise you to learn how little we actually know about the natural history of this disease. And what little we know has been a bit discouraging. However, a new study by Danny Luan and colleagues offers some important new insight. Remissions, Though Not Typical, Are […]
June 20, 2018 — It’s a familiar theme. Urbanization is spreading obesity around the world in low and middle income countries. And the implication is that urbanization has already done damage to higher income countries like the U.S. But like most familiar themes of obesity, this one doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny. Rural Obesity Soaring in the U.S. […]
June 19, 2018 — Sad but true, we often have to learn the same things over and over again. So it is with a basic fact of obesity prevalence. State health officials get comfortable with relying upon self-reports. Often, that’s all they have. It’s easier to do a telephone or online survey than to actually collect measurements of height […]
June 6, 2018 — If you’re looking for good economic news, avert your eyes from healthcare. Trustees told us yesterday that Medicare will be insolvent only eight years from now. That’s three years sooner than the last estimate. One reason is that healthcare spending is growing faster now. Healthcare spending is up by 5.3% this year. Why? A new […]
May 23, 2018 — At the opening of ECO2018 this morning, one thing is abundantly clear. With the rise of global obesity, we have a growing recognition that weight bias is becoming an important global problem, too. New Study Confirms Unfavorable Trends Alan Moses is presenting an analysis of the global prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Unfortunately, the trends […]
May 21, 2018 — In just a few days, the European Congress on Obesity (ECO2018) opens in Vienna. This comes as news from London suggests UK childhood obesity rates are rapidly catching up with U.S. Of course, no one is celebrating this milestone. Surpassing the Rates for 11-Year-Olds The latest data come from Britain’s NHS. They show that 20% […]
May 3, 2018 — It’s become a bit of a cliché. Poverty and obesity seem to travel together. Though obesity rates are rising among all social and economic groups, populations under the most pressure suffer disproportionately. But that begs a question. How does the relationship between poverty and obesity work? Reversing the Usual Assumption The typical assumption is that […]
April 8, 2018 — Questions of how and why the pandemic of obesity has progressed through the whole earth’s population defies simple answers. Even more vexing is the question of how to change these dynamics. In Obesity, Keisuke Ejima, Diana Thomas, and David Allison have published new modeling that offers clues for answering these questions. Genetic Susceptibility Obesity moves through […]
