Adult obesity rates are down in Minnesota, Montana, New York and Ohio — the first states in the nation to show a decline in a decade — while child obesity held steady at 17 percent, says the annual State of Obesity report. “Obesity remains one of the most significant epidemics our country has faced, contributing to millions of preventable illnesses and billions of dollars in avoidable health care costs,” said chief executive Richard Hamburg of the Trust for America’s Health, a co-sponsor of the report.
For most states, the obesity rate was unchanged, said the report, based on 2015 data. Rates went up in Kansas and Kentucky. Louisiana had the highest rate of adult obesity in the nation, 36.2 percent, while Colorado was lowest at 20.2 percent. Rates are highest in the South and Midwest.
Ten of the 12 states with the highest adult diabetes rates are in the South. Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases associated with overweight and obesity, along with high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, stroke and cancer.
Two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, as are one-third of children and teenagers, says the government. It says the adult obesity rate is 35.7 percent and youth obesity is 17 percent. More men are overweight than women but the obesity rate is equal between the sexes.
Obesity rates “are high across the board,” said the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the other sponsor of the annual report. “There is some evidence that the rate of increase has been slowing over the years.”
Among children, obesity rates declined for ages 2-5, were steady for ages 6-11, and increased for ages 12-19. Hispanic and black children were more likely to be obese than white children. Nearly 42 percent of high school students play video or computer games for at least three hours a day, double the 22-percent rate of 2003.
The report did not ascribe reasons for the decline in the four states. “Across the country, we need to fully adopt the high-impact strategies recommended by numerous experts,” said TFAH chief Hamburg. “Improving nutrition and increasing activity in early childhood, making healthy choices easier in people’s daily lives and targeting the startling inequities are all key approaches we need to ramp up.”
Of the four states with declines, Ohio had the highest adult obesity rate, 29.8 percent, down 2.8 points from 2014, followed by Minnesota at 26.1 percent, down 1.5 points; New York at 25 percent, down 2 points; and Montana at 23.6 percent, down 2.8 points.