The three years of the pandemic worsened Americans' physical health. That is the conclusion reached by a survey conducted by Gallup that warns of a significant increase in American adults who suffer from diabetes and obesity or who have poor eating habits.
The results, published this Thursday, report that 13.6% of the adults surveyed stated that a medical professional had diagnosed them with diabetes in 2023. This represents an increase of more than one percentage point and represents a new high for Americans.
The percentage of Americans who are obese also grew. According to the survey, 38% of American adults were obese in 2023. The figure thus increases six percentage points compared to 2019 and is very close to the all-time high of of 39.9% recorded in 2022.
By age group, those that experienced the greatest increase were those between 45 and 64 years old and those between 30 and 44 years old, which saw increases of 8.2 and 6.1 points, respectively, compared to 2019. Obesity in American adults under 30 years of age increased the least, rising only 3.2 percentage points to 29.8% from the 26.6% registered in 2019.
Bad eating habits among leading reasons why physical health has worsened
One of the reasons that could explain the deterioration of physical health in America is poor eating habits. Some 42% of those surveyed said they had five portions of fruit and vegetables at least four days during the previous week. This represents a decrease of almost eight percentage points from 2019, when the percentage stood at 49.9%.
The percentage of people who said they had eaten "healthily" the day before also decreased. As can be seen in the survey, in 2019, that percentage was 51.7% while in 2023, it was reduced by five percentage points and stood at 46.7%.
What could be the cause of this health decline? As Gallup Director of Well-being Dan Witters assured Axios, the pandemic and all the consequences it had in terms of health are directly related:
What we're seeing here is definitely pandemic-related. We're seeing a pretty substantial drop-off in healthy eating habits and high levels of energy to get things done each day.
