Mon, Nov 3, 2003 (11:25 a.m.)

CARSON CITY -- More than 55 percent of Nevadans are overweight or obese, and the number of growing, state Health Officer Dr. Bradford Lee said today.

Lee told the Legislative Subcommittee Studying the Impacts of Obesity that the number of people who are a healthy weight is decreasing in the state.

In 1992 fewer than 10 percent of Nevadans were considered obese, but that grew to 19.5 percent in 2002, he said. The number of overweight people in Nevada stood at 37 percent last year. Lee did not say how many residents were only overweight in 1992.

"We eat too much," Dr. Garn Mabey, an assemblyman from Las Vegas, said, after hearing the results. "We put on the extra calories. We keep eating and eating."

The body mass index is a way of calculating weight and height. There is a simple table that compares height and weight to get the body mass index. There are also more sophisticated ways of calculating the index.

A person is considered overweight if he or she has a body mass index of 25 to 29.9. Normal weight is a body mass index below 25.

A person with a body mass index of 30 is considered obese. That level equates to about 30 pounds overweight for a 5-foot-4 woman.

Dr. Ihsan Azzam of the state Bureau of Community Health told the subcommittee that Nevada's rate of overweight or obese persons grew 12.9 percent between 1992 and 2001. That compares with the national rate of 9.3 percent.

Azzam said the effects of overweight and obesity is "associated with more chronic disorders and worse physical health related to quality of life than smoking or problem drinking."

The effects of obesity for a 20-year-old individual can be equivalent to aging as much as 30 years, Azzam said.

People who are obese die faster than the normal person, he said.

Lee said 13 percent of those under 18 nationally were overweight in 1999. "Today there are twice as many overweight children and almost three times as many overweight adolescents as they were in 1980," he said.

Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, pointed to a lack of exercise in the schools. "The kids rush to eat or go to a fast food place."

She said she hoped the subcommittee will come up with recommendations for the school districts. "They are not doing it themselves. What they're teaching in the classroom doesn't apply in the lunchroom.

Lee presented figures to show that between 1996 and 2002 about 53 percent of all Clark County residents were considered overweight or obese, with 47 percent at a normal weight. In rural Nevada an estimated 55 percent were overweight or obese and in Washoe County about 49 percent.

By gender 58.8 percent of the females had normal weight compared to only 37.3 percent for men in the period. The chart, which was compiled by the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, showed 18.3 percent of men were obese, compared with 15 percent of women.

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