Prevalence of Obesity Among Adults, by Household Income and Education - United States, 2011-2014

Abstract

Studies have suggested that obesity prevalence varies by income and educational level, although patterns might differ between high-income and low-income countries (1-3). Previous analyses of U.S. data have shown that the prevalence of obesity varied by income and education, but results were not consistent by sex and race/Hispanic origin (4). Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), CDC analyzed obesity prevalence among adults (aged ≥20 years) by three levels of household income, based on percentage (≤130%, >130% to ≤350%, and >350%) of the federal poverty level (FPL) and individual education level (high school graduate or less, some college, and college graduate). During 2011-2014, the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity among adults was lower in the highest income group (31.2%) than the other groups (40.8% [>130% to ≤350%] and 39.0% [≤130%]). The age-adjusted prevalence of obesity among college graduates was lower (27.8%) than among those with some college (40.6%) and those who were high school graduates or less (40.0%). The patterns were not consistent across all sex and racial/Hispanic origin subgroups. Continued progress is needed to achieve the Healthy People 2020 targets of reducing age-adjusted obesity prevalence to <30.5% and reducing disparities (5).

FIGURE 1

Obesity prevalence among adults, by household income (percentage of FPL) and sex — National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2002 to 2011–2014*^† Abbreviation: FPL = federal poverty level. * Estimates age-adjusted by the direct method to the 2000 projected U.S. Census population using the age groups 20–39, 40–59, and ≥60 years. ^† Significant linear trends for all groups except >350% of FPL for women. For >350% of FPL for men also significant quadratic trend. All p<0.05.

FIGURE 2

Obesity prevalence among adults, by education level and sex — National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2002 to 2011–2014*^† * Estimates age-adjusted by the direct method to the 2000 projected U.S. Census population using the age groups 20–39, 40–59, and ≥60 years. ^† Significant linear trends for all groups (p<0.01) except men who were college graduates. For women college graduates p = 0.056.