On February 27, 2014 Gallup Press published the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index on obesity and reported an obesity rate increase in the U.S. in 2013. The percentage of U.S. Americans with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 and more, coined ‘morbidly obese’, rose to 3.8 percent, while the overall obesity rate in 2013 was 27.1% (BMI larger than 30). Slightly fewer people were classified as normal weight (BMI<25) or overweight (BMI between 25 and 30). The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is based on self-reported height and weight of a random sample of 178072 adults above 18; information is retrieved via telephone interviews. Results are slightly different from the U.S. government reported obesity levels which are based on clinical measurements of height and weight. A recent government report based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) reported obesity levels of 34.9% in adults above the age of 20 and did not observe significant differences to the rates since 2003.
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Rebecca Riffkin (February 27, 2014). “U.S. Obesity Rate Ticks Up to 27.1% in 2013.” Gallup Press.
