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November 23, 2011 at 06:09 AM
The United States is not that terrible at controlling diabetes, by world standards, but it continues to have a serious weight problem.
Researchers at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, have published figures supporting those conclusions in a report comparing the quality of medical care for chronic conditions in 15 OECD member countries.
The OECD researchers found that the United States performed reasonably well on some indicators.
The United States did better than the OECD average at keeping residents ages 15 and older from entering the hospital with uncontrolled diabetes. The rate wasabout 21 per 100,000 for the United States, compared with an OECD average of about 50 per 100,000.
But the United States ranked very poorly in terms of the number of people ages 15 and older admitted to hospitals with asthma. The rate was about 121 per 100,000 in the United States, compared with an OECD average of about 52 per 100,000, and the Slovak Republic was the only participating country that did worse on that indicator.
U.S. residents also continued to outweigh the residents of other OECD countries.
About 34% of U.S. adults are obese, compared with an average adult obesity rate of 17% for all OECD countries. In the next weightiest country, Mexico, about 30% of adults are obese.
