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Item #14 

Bronx Has Highest Obesity, Diabetes Rates in New York City

Bronxites have the highest obesity and diabetes rates in New York City.

The survey of 10,000 New Yorkers found that 21.8 percent of people in the Bronx are obese, compared with 18.8 percent in Brooklyn, 16.8 percent in Staten Island and 15.4 percent in Queens. Manhattan had the lowest obesity rate, with 11.9 percent of the population considered dangerously overweight.

In addition, 11.8 percent of people in the Bronx are diagnosed with diabetes, an illness closely linked with poor nutrition, lack of exercise and obesity. Citywide, 7.9 percent of the population has diabetes.

Health Department officials said diabetes has become an epidemic in the city, where the rate of the disease has doubled in the last eight years. The national diabetes rate also has doubled in the last few years.

"This is a Code Red situation," said Dr. Joel Zonszein, an obesity and diabetes specialist at Montefiore Medical Center. "The statistics are alarming. And this is, if anything, an underestimation of what's going on."

Zonszein said the high diabetes rate in the Bronx mirrors the borough's increasing Hispanic and African-American populations, "which have the highest rates of the disease," and a declining white population.

The study also found that obesity and diabetes are more prevalent in low-income neighborhoods. In the South Bronx, for example, 13.9 percent of the population has diabetes.

Zonszein said this is, in part, because people living in poorer communities tend to eat more affordable fast foods, which are often high in fat and calories.

"This population is getting these excess calories in their diet, and are working out less, and the body cannot adapt to that," he said.

The doctor stressed that educating people about diet and exercise is crucial, because Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, can be prevented with lifestyle changes.

Dr. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, an obesity and diabetes specialist at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, said the negative health effects of obesity are far-reaching and agreed that education is the solution.

"It's not just diabetes -- it's heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, arthritis," Pi-Sunyer said. "The costs financially and in quality of life are very high. The Department of Health needs to get busy and educate physicians and raise public awareness, much like the tobacco campaigns."