Adult obesity rates highest in Southern, Midwest states

Out of 25 states with the highest rates of obesity, 23 are in the South or Midwest regions of the U.S.; however, overall rates of obesity have remained steady across most of the country, according to a recent report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“Efforts to prevent and reduce obesity over the past decade have made a difference. Stabilizing rates is an accomplishment. However, given the continued high rates, it isn’t time to celebrate. We’ve learned that if we invest in effective programs, we can see signs of progress. But, we still haven’t invested enough to really tip the scales yet,” Jeffrey Levi, PhD, executive director of Trust for America's Health (TFAH), said in a press release.

According to the report, the top 10 states with the highest rates of adult obesity are:

Arkansas (35.9%)
West Virginia (35.7%)
Mississippi (35.5%)
Louisiana (34.9%)
Alabama (33.5)
Oklahoma (33%)
Indiana (32.7%)
Ohio (32.6%)
North Dakota (32.2%)
South Carolina (32.1%)

No states have adult obesity rates below 21%, according to the report. States with the lowest rates of adult obesity include:

Colorado (21.3%)
District of Columbia (21.7%)
Hawaii (22.1%)
Massachusetts (23.3%)
California (24.7%)
Vermont (24.8%)
Utah (25.7%)
Florida (26.2%)
Connecticut (26.3%)
Montana (26.4%)

Among all ethnicities and races, American Indians/Alaska Natives have the highest rates of adult obesity at 54%. On average, obesity rates are lower among whites (32.6%) compared with blacks (47.8%) and Latinos (42.5%).

The researchers noted that disparities in obesity rates exist among ethnicities, with obesity rates over 30% being seen in 42 states for blacks, 30 states for Latinos and only 13 states for whites.

Adults aged 40 to 59 years have a 26% higher rate of obesity, compared with adults aged 20 to 39 years.

Nine out of 10 states with the highest rates of diabetes are located in the South, with West Virginia coming in at number one at 14.1% of the population having diabetes.

The rate of severe obesity among adults increased more than 125% over the past two decades — with the current rate at more than 6% — according to the report. Additionally, about 5% of children aged between 6 and 11 years are severely obese.

Over 22% of Latino children (aged 2 to 19 years), 20% of black children and 14.1% of white children are obese, according to the results.

“If we fail to change the course of the nation's obesity epidemic, the current generation of young people may be the first in American history to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents,” Levi and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), wrote in a letter on Stateofobesity.org. – by Casey Hower