Obesity In America--A Public Health Epidemic

Course overview

Millions of adults and children all across the world are overweight or obese. Left unchecked, the effects of this crisis on the world's health, healthcare costs, and productivity could be catastrophic. In the United States, we are getting more obese every day, many of our children are obese, and our life expectancies are much shorter because of it, despite trying many types of diets, eating less, and moving more. The outcome of this course is for the learner to describe the extent of obesity in the United States; explain the difference between being overweight and being obese; list the causes of overweight and obesity; examine the health and economic consequences of obesity; and discuss pharmaceutical and surgical options for obese individuals.