Adult Obesity Rates Still Rising in the United States

Three in 10 Georgia adults are obese, a rate that ranks the state 19th in the nation, a new report has found.

In a state-by-state analysis, Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi were states with the highest adult obesity rates.

The new USA obesity rate by state analysis was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Monday and while the results showed steadiness, the numbers are still too high to be considered healthy. The highest was Arkansas, which exceeded 35 percent.

“Efforts to prevent and reduce obesity over the past decade have made a difference”, said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health in a statement.

“Stabilizing rates is an accomplishment”.

The states with the lowest adult obesity rates are Colorado at 21.3 percent; the District of Columbia at 21.7 percent; Hawaii at 22.1 percent; and Massachusetts at 23.3 percent. “But, we still haven’t invested enough to really tip the scales yet”.

Meanwhile, both states represent the chronically obese South, a region replete with deep-fried customs, food-themed events, high poverty and limited access to fruits and vegetables. The data was collected as part of the CDC’s Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, a telephone survey of state health departments. Take a look at the state of Minnesota, which remained to be the 15th lowest obesity rate in the US. Cofsky states that the nutrition programs conducted by federal health and making the issue of obesity their top priority, could have helped in the improvement.

“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”, the authors write in the report. Individually, obese adults spend 42% more on direct healthcare and are 28% more likely to go to the hospital for chest pains.

Davis, noting the racial disparities in the statistics, added, “We want to see a lowering of obesity across all races and all income statuses”.