Adult Obesity Prevalence Increased During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2017–2018, 42.4 percent of U.S. adults experienced obesity, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic unfolded in 2020, studies using limited online surveys found evidence of weight gain among U.S. adults, suggesting that behavior changes during the pandemic exacerbated an already existing adult obesity epidemic. However, because the pandemic surveys did not represent the overall U.S. adult population, findings derived from them did not fully show how much obesity rates changed for adults during the pandemic.

根据全国健康与营养检查调查（National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey）的数据，2017至2018年间，美国有42.4%的成年人罹患肥胖症。2020年新型冠状病毒肺炎（Coronavirus，COVID-19）疫情蔓延期间，依托有限线上调查开展的研究发现美国成年人出现体重增加的迹象，表明疫情期间的行为改变加剧了本已存在的成年人肥胖流行态势。然而，由于此次疫情相关调查未覆盖美国全体成年人群体，基于这些调查得出的研究结果无法完整呈现疫情期间美国成年人肥胖率的变化幅度。