The U.S. 'Obesity Epidemic' and the Lasting Value of BMI

摘要

The "red hot" research papers for 2010 listed in Science Watch's March/April 2011 issue were dominated by genetics, which is no surprise per haps, but die leader of die pack was a far cry from that largely laboratory world. Papers on exome and metagenomic sequencing, at second and diird places, trailed well behind a study (now at #9 in the accompanying Medicine Top Ten) on trends in adult obesity from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Slightly less warm, at seventh in that March/ April year-end ranking and published in the same issue of JAMA, lies a companion paper covering children and adolescents (C.L. Ogden, et aL,JAMA, 303[3]: 242-49, 2010; as yet out side the Top 25, widi 24 citations this period and 70 overall). Articles published in January, as these were, have an advantage in annualized rankings; nonetheless, the attention given to