BMJ 1995;311:1568-1569 (9 December)

Letters

Authors' reply

EDITOR,--The increase in moderately overweight people in Britain has been somewhat greater than that quoted by J N Morris. Data from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys quoted in a recent report on obesity show that overweight (body mass index 25-30) increased from 33% to 42% in men and from 24% to 29% in women between 1980 and 1991-2.1 The total number of overweight and obese people combined (that is, those with a body mass index of >25) rose from 39% to 54% in men and from 32% to 45% in women. There are complexities resulting from a progressive skewing of the distribution curve for body mass index as the mean index of a population increases,2 but these do not diminish the seriousness of the epidemic facing Britain.

In our paper we were careful to caution against overinterpretation of trends in data over time. Obesity is progressive, taking years, . . . [Full text of this article]


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