SUPPLEMENT: Safe Patient Handling & Movement: Bariatric Considerations

More than two-thirds of all individuals living in the United States are overweight or obese, and 3% to 10% (at least 8 million) are morbidly obese.1 Morbid obesity, once a rare occurrence in America, has essentially quadrupled since the 1980s.2 Research also shows that the heaviest Americans have become even heavier over the past decade.3 Studies suggest a substantial increase in obesity among all age, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.4 Worldwide, the number of overweight or obese individuals, which totals nearly 2 billion, now exceeds the number of those suffering from starvation.5,6

Gallagher SM, Hilton T, Monaghan HM, Muir M, Dye A