Steep Escalation in Minority Obesity and Breast Cancer

A new report in the journal Academic Pediatrics shows that severe obesity¹ in children has tripled in the past two decades.  It has especially risen amongst blacks (5.7%) and Mexican-Americans (5.2%), compared to whites (3.1%).  The problem is more prevalent in low income families.

Severe obesity is a predictor of the trend of just how bad the obesity problem is becoming, as there are many other children who are overweight or obese and headed in the direction of severe obesity.

One of the obvious consequences of overweight/obesity is increased breast cancer risk which was the subject of a press release yesterday titled, Cancers Set To “Explode” In Latino/a Populations². 

Based on projections of Mexican-American population growth from the U.S. Census Bureau, University of Illinois professor Lydia Buki expects that the diagnoses of breast and cervical cancers among Latinas will increase significantly.
“It’s just going to explode,” she said. “It’s really a train wreck waiting to happen, and we’re not doing enough to anticipate women’s needs. Even right now, we are not doing a good job of providing services for these women.”  She says factors involved are,  “Low levels of health insurance, limited proficiency with the English language, low levels of formal education, low income, cultural factors and institutional racism.”

“Evidence suggests that Latinos develop greater risk for this type of cancer across generations, given the changes in diet that take place across generations in the United States,” according to Buki. “As Latinos spend more time in the United Sates, their eating habits become more like those of non-Latino whites, with diets higher in fat and lower in fiber, fruits and vegetables.”

I have already explained similar problems facing the black community in my article, New Insights on African-American Cardio Disease.

I have also explained the extreme costs associated with this problem in my article, Health Costs Relating to Obesity Skyrocket.

These are very difficult problems facing American society.  The lost potential of human resources is not a tolerable situation.  Yet, how will it be paid for?  Much of this problem is self-inflicted.  The current push of the Obama administration is to extend health insurance coverage to this population (admirable), yet it is being done without an open discussion of the issue or the costs.

Cost projections for including 46 million uninsured Americans is based on assumptions they will cost a similar amount to the currently insured population, which is certainly not going to be the case.

Sure it would be nice if Congressmen actually read the proposed health care legislation.  It would be even nicer if the legislation actually addressed real problems faced by the people, instead of pretending they don’t exist because they will cost a lot of money.