Recently, the American Medical Association (AMA) has officially declared “obesity” as a “disease,” which is bringing considerable attention. People say that such official decision from an authorized medical association is expected to have a huge impact in the society.
By classifying obesity as a type of disease, over 30 percent of Americans became patients all of a sudden. Some analysts predict that that the rise in the number of “patients” can lead to dramatic increase in drug prescription, resulting in confusion and chaos. On the other hand, other analysts have positive perspectives on the designation of obesity as disease, saying that official recognition will encourage more support/funding on treatment and future researches.
In an interview with the US Today, Professor Samuel Klein the director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said, “The most important aspect of AMA decision is that AMA is respected representative of American medicine. Their opinion can influence policy makers who are in a position to do more to support interventions and research to prevent and treat obesity.”
Now obesity counseling will be part of medical treatment and it can be included in one of the benefits of health insurance. With the dramatic increase in number of “patients,” insurance industry must come up with a new model with high profitability. A person with about 35 pounds from the standard weight is considered “obese.” By such definition, one in three American teenagers is overweight or obese.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States has reported that from 1997 to 2012, the number of obese population has increased to about 50 percent. Also a non-profit organization RTI International estimated that at a current pace of increase in obesity, in 2030, about 42 percent of Americans will be obese.
More about:
BMI (Body Mass Index) Chart http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/433/weight.pdf Child Overweight and Obesity http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/index.html Adult Overweight and Obesity http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/index.html
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