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Pennsylvania shows slight improvement in U.S. obesity rankings

The MDH says obesity rates have a significant impact on health care costs for related chronic diseases, which include diabetes.

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Louisiana topped the list with an adult obesity rate of 36.2 percent.

Although the obesity rate has slightly declined, the report shows it’s largely because other states are struggling more.

The 13th annual report found that rates of obesity now exceed 35% in four states, are at or above 30% in 25 states and are above 20% in all states.

The Palmetto State had a rate of 31.7 percent in 2015 which ranks 13th in the USA, according to a report released Thursday by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “In 1980, no state had an obesity rate above 15%”, Hamburg said.

By comparison, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent in 1991, according to analysis using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

About 38% of US adults are obese, and rates are at least 40% for African-Americans in 14 states.

For 2015, Colorado had the lowest obesity rate at 20.2 percent. Kansas and Kentucky were the only states that experienced an increase.

– Nine of the 11 states with the highest obesity rates were in the South and 22 of the 25 states with the highest rates of obesity were in the South and Midwest. Alabama has the third-highest rates of adult diabetes and hypertension, according to the study. There are significant racial and ethnic inequities, with rates higher among Hispanic children (21.9%) and Black children (19.5%) than among White (14.7%) children.

– For high school students in the Mountain State specifically, the 2015 obesity rate was 17.9 percent.

That’s a small improvement from ranking 10th in 2014 with a 32.1 percent obesity rate.

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The report notes that Pennsylvania, unlike some states, lacks physical activity standards for schoolchildren.

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