You may be wondering…why does this matter? These statistics that are going to be provided will be showing the toll that poor health promotion and prevention have on people. It is a concern that should be important to all people because your health is so important!
**First, take this quiz on your perceptions of the world. Then come back and read further.
What did you get wrong and what did you get right? You were probably surprised just as I was. There are a lot of misperceptions within the world. Today, I am hoping this website you have found will help to combat the misperceptions you have in regards to the subject of health in the U.S. and within yourself.
Some of the following were addressed within these questions:
The average guess in the United States for the percentage of people that were obese was 50% when in reality it was 66% (Duffy, 2019, p.26).
“1 in 5 men with grade I obesity classified themselves as obese, with a BMI of 30-34.9 and only 42% of grade 2 or 3 obesity called themselves obese (BMI 35+)” (Duffy, 2019, p.28).
Participants in a study were shown to answer that 50% of them were consuming more sugar than they should while the real number was 69% (Duffy, 2019, p.30).
People answered that 50% of them were consuming more calories than the allotted daily value (Duffy, 2019, p.32).
“40% of people thought they were getting enough exercise when in reality 64% were meeting the guidelines” (Duffy, 2019, p.31).
Society sees issues such as poor health as something that is normalized and accepted into practice instead of making change (Duffy, 2019).
Here are some statistics on current health:
“Over one-third of U.S. adults are obese and obesity is the second leading cause of premature death in the North America” (Testa & Jackson, 2019, p.444).
CDC (2018) states the conditions caused by poor health practices are “leading drivers of the nation’s $3.5 trillion in annual health care costs.”
“1 in every 4 deaths are caused by heart disease” (CDC, 2018).
“One person dies every 36 seconds in the United States from Cardiovascular Disease” (CDC, 2018).
“6 in 10 adults in the US have a chronic disease and 4 in 10 have 2 or more chronic disease” (CDC, 2018).
There has been a steady rise in diabetes, the statistics show that it has progressed from 6% in 2001 to 9.1% in 2018 (CDC, 2018).
The prevalence of obesity has jumped from 30.5% to 42.2% in just a year between the years 2017 and 2018 (CDC, 2018).
Health promotion is preferred to treatment because it means that people are following guidelines to be healthy and will be less likely to develop these types of illnesses or conditions through proper health practices.
