Obesity has become an epidemic in many countries in the developed
world. In the United States, increasing rates of obesity are
reported in the general population and include women of reproductive
age [1]. According to data from the 2009–2010 National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey, nearly 32% of women of reproductive
age (20–39 years of age) have obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) [2].
Thisprevalence washighestinnon-Hispanic blacks (56.2%). Despite
recent efforts at reducing the prevalence of obesity in pregnant
women in the United States to 15%, rates of obesity rose by 0.5%
per year from 2003 to 2009 [3]. Goals of healthcare administration
∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine,
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown
University, 101 Dudley St., Providence, RI 02905, USA.
E-mail address: Mai he@brown.edu (M. He).
in the United States are to reduce the prevalence of obesity among
adults in the United States to 30.5% by 2020