Obesity Among Baby Boomers and Older Adults

The growing chorus of concern around obesity has lately focused a great deal of attention on young people and younger adults. However, obesity is a powerful driver of a whole host of chronic diseases associated with aging including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and depression, among others.

Most everyone can agree that maintaining a healthy weight is a good thing. However, who's responsible and who should pay are more contentious. Public health promotion campaigns have focused almost entirely on individuals and the need to eat better and exercise more. Little discussion has focused on the role of various levels of government, communities, the corporate sector, and health care systems.

To explore these issues and possible options for action, the American Federation for Aging Research sponsored a policy and information briefing in December 2004 in Washington, DC, on "The Politics of Older Adult Obesity." We invited a panel of experts (see below) to examine various aspects of the obesity dilemma along with more than 40 members of Washington's policy community. The ideas generated at that meeting provided a powerful foundation for the report "Boom, Boom Boom: Obesity Among Baby Boomers and Older Adults," which was released in conjunction with a Web cast held by AFAR on March 9, 2005, also on the topic of obesity in Baby Boomers and older adults. For a .pdf of the report, please click here.

The Politics of Older Adult Obesity: Policy Briefing
December 2, 2004
Washington, DC

Boom! Boom! Boom!
Obesity Among Baby Boomers and Older Adults: Web Cast
March 9, 2005

For more information on either of these events, please contact Stacey Harris, Director of Communications at AFAR, at 212.703.9977 or stacey@afar.org.