CBS) If current obesity trends continue, more than 40 percent of adults in the United states will be obese and spending on the epidemic will quadruple to $344 billion by 2018, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The study, published by the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, notes that the states most in danger of a ballooning obesity epidemic are: Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
The results are based on research by Dr. Ken Thorpe, a health care economist at Emory University and director of PFCD.
"At a time when Congress is looking for savings in health care, this data confirms what we already knew: obesity is where the money is," Thorpe said in a press release. "Because obesity is related to the onset of so many other illnesses, stopping the growth of obesity in the U.S. is vital not only to our health - but also to the solvency of our health care system."
