Epidemiologic analyses leave no doubt that we have witnessed a global epidemic of childhood and ado-lescent obesity over the past three decades. In the United States, prevalence rates of overweight and obesity have tripled for children aged 6-19 (from approximately 10% to 34%) and projections suggest that by 2015, just 6 years from the date of this publication, that rate could quintuple-getting frighteningly close to 50%.1 Obesity-associated hospital costs (adjusted for inflation) more than tripled over just two of the prior decades (1979-1999), with far greater healthcare costs likely to emerge over the ensuing decades.
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