subject: Obesity: Is it Contagious? [print this page] Obesity: Is it Contagious? Obesity: Is it Contagious?
The obesity rate in American has remained at 34% during the past five years, but will continue to grow until reaching 42%, Harvard medical researchers conclude.
The study builds off a 2007 report that an individual's risk of becoming obese increases 50% if a friend of his becomes obese.
Researchers believe this phenomenon is fueling the obesity rate in the United States, which is projected to increase over the next 40 years.
Is obesity contagious? Harvard medical researchers examined the influencing factors of becoming obese. "We found there is some baseline risk of becoming obese based on the friends you have," Allison Hill, a graduate student at Harvard and the Harvard- Massachusetts Institute Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology said.
"It looks like obesity is becoming more infectious."
Based off this analysis, researchers predict the obesity rate to rise before reaching a plateau at 42%.
The average American adult holds a 2% risk of becoming obese in any given year. Each obese social contact increases that risk by 0.5% each year. The study propagates that obesity spreads through social networks.
One research scientists from the study stated that "social transmission of obesity has grown much faster in the last four decades."
Unfortunately, the converse is not true. Surrounding oneself with thin people does not increase likelihood of losing weight. "We didn't find that having more healthy-weight friends made it more likely to help people lose weight. It fits with this idea of thinking about it as an infectious disease. You don't really catch healthiness," Hill explained.
The study contradicts a statement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year that the obesity rate in America has already reached its peak.
Obesity highly increases risk of heart related diseases, among other health concerns.
The study is bad news for Americans: the United States remains on the road to higher obesity rates.
