CDC: Higher Income and Education Levels Linked to Better Health

More educated people who make more money have lower rates of several chronic diseases, including obesity, compared to people with lower education and income levels, according to Health, United States, 2011, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.

In the government’s 35th annual comprehensive health report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), data from nearly 60 major data sources within the federal government and in the private sector provide a health-related snapshot of life in the U.S. The NCHS looks at data from the start of the study in 1975 through 2010. “We like to highlight different things we find interesting for readers,” says Amy Bernstein, a health services researcher at NCHS.

Weight Loss and the Solution to the Obesity Epidemic

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve been bombarded recently with startling news about the out-of-control obesity epidemic and the ruin it is causing. It’s been in the headlines repeatedly and is the subject of HBO’s Weight of the Nation TV special. What you haven’t seen in the headlines is that we now know the solution to the epidemic and we can implement it immediately. The solution is described below. First, some of the alarming news:

• A recent study by Duke University estimates that 42 percent of Americans will be obese by 2030, up from about 34 percent today. Contrary to other reports, the epidemic is getting worse, not better. Will we all become obese?
• A recent story in the New York Times exposes how dangerous obese airline passengers can be, with engineers describing how seat belts may not restrain obese people. In a crash, obese people may “blast through” seat belts and into other passengers. Have you seen the films of normal-size test dummies crashing into dashboards? Imagine getting hit by a 250- to 300-pound linebacker at jet speed.
• The CDC estimates that obesity costs us about $150 billion per year today, almost 10 percent of health care costs. It’s the second leading cause of preventable death in the country, just behind smoking, and it is gaining. That cost is projected to increase to over500 billion.

Plus-Size Men’s Clothing Stores in the US Industry Market Research Report Now Available from IBISWorld

As a larger share of American adults become obese, demand for this industry – which retails clothing specifically tailored and customized for men with waist sizes above 40 inches and heights over six feet two inches – grows in turn. Traditional men’s clothing stores carry few items tailored to plus-size men, making this industry an increasingly important niche segment. As more business flows to specialized plus-size retailers, more general clothing stores are expected to open or expand their plus-size offerings. For these reasons, industry research firm IBISWorld has added a report on the Plus-Size Men’s Clothing Stores industry to its growing industry report collection.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 16, 2012

The Plus-Size Men’s Clothing Stores industry has achieved significant growth over the past decade as retailers increasingly tap into this growing market. Commonly referred to as big and tall men’s clothing, the industry sells apparel tailored for men with a waist size of over 40 inches or men that are over six feet two inches tall. As a result, says IBISWorld industry analyst Caitlin Moldvay, “Industry demand is partly correlated with trends in the obesity rate.” Over the past three decades, the percentage of American men that are overweight or obese has steadily risen to a current 73.9%, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, a factor which has expanded the industry’s core market. In spite of this, the industry was unable to avoid the adverse effects of the Great Recession; with heightened unemployment and decreased disposable income, spending on industry apparel contracted, and revenue fell 3.1% and 2.8% in 2008 and 2009, respectively. As a result, over the five years to 2012, industry revenue grew at an average annual rate of 1.8% to an estimated $3.5 billion.