WASHINGTON (AP), Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 U.S. states over the past year and did not decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And while the U.S. has long been bracing for a surge in the government-funded medical program for the elderly as the the generation born after World War II starts turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds ‚ the oldest boomers ‚ than among today's 65-and-beyond.

That translates into a coming jump of obese elderly patients that ranges from 5.2 percent in New York to a high of 16.3 percent in Alabama, the report concluded. In Alabama, nearly 39 percent of the oldest boomers are obese.

Health economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese would save money by dying sooner, notes Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust, a nonprofit public health group. But more recent research instead suggests they live nearly as long but are much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Studies show Medicare, as the program for the elderly is known, spends anywhere from $1,400 to $6,000 more annually on health care for an obese senior than for the non-obese.

"There isn't a magic bullet. We don't have a pill for it," said Levi, whose group is pushing for health reform legislation to include community-level programs that help people make healthier choices ‚ like building sidewalks so people can walk their neighborhoods instead of drive and providing healthier school lunches.

"It's not going to be solved in the doctor's office but in the community, where we change norms," Levi said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long said that nearly a third of Americans are obese. The Trust report uses somewhat more conservative CDC surveys for a closer state-by-state look.
___
On the Net:
Trust for America's Health: http://healthyamericans.org/
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: http://www.rwjf.org/

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

ATHENS, Greece (AP), Europe's most nicotine-addicted nation adopted a new public smoking ban Wednesday in a bid to stub out the Greek habit of lighting up practically everywhere. Exceptions have been made for mental patients and gamblers.

Unrestricted indoor smoking in restaurants, bars, coffee shops and workplaces is now against the law, in the third ban Greece has tried to impose over the past decade.

"We want to change the mentality of many years and adapt our daily habits ... to the practices in effect in all civilized countries," Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said. "Greek society is ready for this."

European Union figures show that 37.6 percent of Greeks aged over 15 smoke on a daily basis ‚ the highest level in the 27-nation EU. According to the Health Ministry, the habit kills 20,000 Greek smokers every year, and another 700 die as a result of passive smoking.

But the government has stopped shy of imposing a blanket ban, and critics say this will render the new law as ineffective as the two previous ones ‚ which were generally ignored by smokers and authorities alike.

Small establishments will be able to choose whether they will be exclusively smoking or nonsmoking, and bigger ones can set aside smoking areas.

And all hospitals and health services will be smoke free ‚ apart from mental institutions, where patients will be able to smoke under prescription "for purely curative purposes," according to the new law.

Smokers will also be free to indulge in casino gaming areas.

Offenders will face fines ranging from euro50 for smokers to a maximum euro20,000 for the owners of bars, restaurants and coffee shops caught for multiple infractions.

A poll earlier this year found that 95 percent of nonsmokers and 62 percent of smokers backed a public smoking ban.

"It's a positive measure," said Athens kiosk worker Pavlos Giannopoulos. "It's all a matter of habit, as long as (the law) is enforced."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.