Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity

301 Pages·2017·3.63 MB·English

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
This PDF is available at http://nap.edu/23505 SHARE
Ū ſ Ŷ Þ
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the
Evidence
DETAILS
300 pages | 6 x 9 | PAPERBACK
ISBN 978-0-309-44271-8 | DOI 10.17226/23505
CONTRIBUTORS
GET THIS BOOK Committee on Evaluating Approaches to Assessing Prevalence and Trends in
Obesity; Food and Nutrition Board; Health and Medicine Division; National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
FIND RELATED TITLES
Visit the National Academies Press at NAP.edu and login or register to get:
– Access to free PDF downloads of thousands of scientific reports

– 10% off the price of print titles

– Email or social media notifications of new titles related to your interests

– Special offers and discounts
Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the National Academies Press.
(Request Permission) Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences.
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
Committee on Evaluating Approaches to Assessing
Prevalence and Trends in Obesity
Food and Nutrition Board
Health and Medicine Division
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by Grant No. 72377 from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation. Any opinions, fndings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in
this publication do not necessarily refect the views of any organization or agency
that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-44271-8
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-44271-0
Digital Object Identifer: 10.17226/23505
Additional copies of this workshop summary are available for sale from the National
Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800)
624-6242 or [phone]; http://www.nap.edu.
Copyright 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016.
Assessing prevalence and trends in obesity: Navigating the evidence. Washington, DC:
The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23505.
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by an Act of Congress,
signed by President Lincoln, as a private, nongovernmental institution to advise
the nation on issues related to science and t echnology. Members are elected by
their peers for outstanding contributions to research. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is
president.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964 under the c harter
of the National Academy of Sciences to bring the practices of engineering to
advising the nation. Members are elected by their peers for extraordinary contri-
butions to engineering. Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr., is president.
The National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) was
established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of S ciences to
advise the nation on medical and health issues. Members are elected by their
peers for distinguished contributions to medicine and health. Dr. Victor J. Dzau
is president.
The three Academies work together as the National Academies of Sciences, Engi-
neering, and Medicine to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to
the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform
public policy decisions. The Academies also encourage education and research,
recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge, and increase public under-
standing in matters of science, engineering, and medicine.
Learn more about the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
at www.national-academies.org.
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
COMMITTEE ON EVALUATING APPROACHES TO
ASSESSING PREVALENCE AND TRENDS IN OBESITY
SHARI BARKIN (Chair), Professor of Pediatrics and William K. Warren
Foundation Endowed Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt
University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
CHERYL A. M. ANDERSON, Associate Professor, Department of Family
Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego,
La Jolla
LYNN A. BLEWETT, Professor of Health Policy and Director, State
Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), University of
Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis
ELIZABETH GOODMAN, Associate Chief for Community-Based
Research, MassGeneral Hospital for Children and Professor of
Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
ROSS HAMMOND, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program and
Director, Center on Social Dynamics and Policy, The Brookings
Institution, Washington, DC
SANDRA HASSINK, Immediate Past President, American Academy of
Pediatrics and Director, American Academy of Pediatrics Institute for
Healthy Childhood Weight, Elk Grove Village, IL
AMY H. HERRING, Carol Remmer Angle Distinguished Professor of
Children’s Environmental Health, Professor and Associate Chair,
Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
GIRIDHAR MALLYA, Director of Policy and Planning, Philadelphia
Department of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA (until September 2015)
MICHAEL G. PERRI, Dean, College of Public Health and Health
Professions, and the Robert G. Frank Endowed Professor of Clinical
and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville
EDUARDO SANCHEZ, Chief Medical Offcer for Prevention, American
Heart Association, Dallas, TX
JACKSON P. SEKHOBO, Director, Evaluation, Research and Surveillance
Unit, Division of Nutrition, New York State Department of Health,
Menands, NY
SHUMEI S. SUN, W. Hans Carter Professor and Chair, Department of
Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond (from July 2015)
v
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
Consultant
DONALD HEDEKER, Professor of Biostatistics, Department of Public
Health Sciences, The University of Chicago, IL
Study Staff
MEGHAN QUIRK, Study Director
JANET MULLIGAN, Senior Program Associate for Research (until
January 2016)
ANNA BURY, Research Assistant (from December 2015)
RENEE GETHERS, Senior Program Assistant
ANN L. YAKTINE, Director, Food and Nutrition Board
vi
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen
for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this
independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will
assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible
and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity,
evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments
and draft manuscript remain confdential to protect the integrity of the
deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their
review of this report:
Lawrence D. Brown, University of Pennsylvania
Christina D. Economos, Tufts University
Barbara C. Hansen, University of South Florida
Shiriki Kumanyika, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of
Medicine
Cynthia L. Ogden, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Louise Ryan, University of Technology Sydney
David A. Savitz, Brown University
Andrea Sharma, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Anna Maria Siega-Riz, University of Virginia
Marion Standish, The California Endowment
Mary T. Story, Duke University
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive
comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions
vii
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
viii REVIEWERS
or recommendations nor did they see the fnal draft of the report before its
release. The review of this report was overseen by Eileen T. Kennedy, Tufts
University, and Diane F. Birt, Iowa State University. They were responsible
for making certain that an independent examination of this report was
carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review
comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the fnal content of
this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Assessing Prevalence and Trends in Obesity: Navigating the Evidence
Preface
Obesity prevalence and trend estimates are at the crux of informing
research, policies, and interventions. Stakeholders at the national, state,
regional, local, and community levels search for information relevant to
their particular jurisdictions to know how best to proceed. Often times,
however, the available estimates appear to provide different accounts of the
same issue. Obesity prevalence could be increasing, decreasing, or stabiliz-
ing depending on which published report is being considered. Underlying
these seemingly conficting results are not only fundamental principles of
epidemiology and statistics, but also methodological approaches specifc to
the assessment of obesity. The interplay of these factors can make interpre-
tation and application of the results challenging. It is the intent of this con-
sensus report to examine key elements that affect the meaning of an obesity
prevalence and trend estimate in order to help those seeking to use the
published reports to systematically inform the decisions they need to make.
Prior to my involvement with this consensus study, I thought review-
ing published reports was a relatively straightforward process. I relied on
my training and experiential knowledge to guide my understanding of the
fndings. As a researcher who collects height and weight data on preschool-
aged children, I was well aware of how diffcult it can be to measure a
young child, but also how critical it is in accurately assessing obesity sta-
tus. As a medical doctor who has seen the demographic characteristics of
my patient population change over time, I have encountered infuxes and
effuxes of population groups that exhibit different levels of obesity risk and
have recognized that this has direct implications for understanding obesity
prevalence and trends in my community. Now at the end of this study, I
ix
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.