The Pittsburgh Indicators Project has previously reported
that Pittsburghers tend to be heavier than most Americans, on the whole as well
as the average of benchmark regions. A
closer look at the data reveals that Pittsburgh men are particularly
overweight. We have a lower percent of
men who are in the normal BMI range, and more in the combined overweight and
obese categories, than any of the other 14 regions that are part of the
Pittsburgh Indicators comparison group.
Pittsburgh women are near the average in the rankings for the proportion
with healthy BMIs. Unfortunately,
Pittsburgh area women are on the higher end of the rankings in terms of the
percent who are obese. The BMI is based
on the height and weight provided during a telephone interview to a national sample
that is of sufficient size to be reasonably robust statistically.
Adult onset diabetes is one of the major health problems
caused by not keeping to normal weight.
Having relatively fewer men and women with normal weight would predict
that we have more diabetics – which in fact we do. Diabetes leads to a significantly increased
risk of stroke, heart attack, blindness, kidney disease, neurological disease
and a host of other life shortening and life limiting disorders. The total costs for diabetes in 2007 in the
United States are estimated by the American Diabetes Association as 174 billion
dollars, up 32% since 2004 (http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-statistics/cost-of-diabetes-in-us.jsp). The amount spent on diabetes and on the many
complications of this disease account for about 20% of total health care costs. The cost per individual with diabetes
averages over $11,000 per year. While we
found no specific dollar costs for the Pittsburgh region, it appears obvious
that a region with more obesity will have more diabetes and more health care
costs.
Why are we overweight?
For any individual, weight gain or loss is determined by whether we take
in more or less calories than we expend in our daily activities. For each one of us, the less we eat or the
more we exercise will make a difference.
In attempting to understand whether our region’s problem is that we eat
too much or exercise too little, we consulted the CDC data base on physical
activity. Like the data on weight, the
data on physical activity come from an annual national phone questionnaire and
have all of the potential problems of such an approach. CDC codes the responses as indicating
sufficient exercise, insufficient exercise, or no exercise. From this data, it appears that women in our
region are just about at the national and benchmark averages in terms of
physical activity, while the good news is that men in our area are considerably
above average. While care is necessary
in interpreting data from telephone surveys, it seems an inescapable conclusion
that in comparison with the rest of the country, men in the Pittsburgh region
are fat because we eat too much, not because we exercise too little.
Men in our region (and women too) take great pride in the
number one ranking of many of our sports teams.
Being number one in overweight and obesity is a ranking that we could do
without.
Good health practices -- not smoking, not overeating -- have been shown to be related to educational achievement. That is, the further you've gone in school, the more likely are you to take care of yourself. If Pittsburgh's fat men result from overeating rather than lack of exercise, it would be interesting to see how health data here correlates with our educational achievement numbers.
William McCloskey
Regent Square
Posted by: William McCloskey | May 23, 2009 at 10:07 AM