New report: Obesity growing in nearly every US state

Obesity grows in all American states except Oregon

Posted on : Wed, 24 Aug 2005 19:02:00 GMT | Author : Anne Roberts
News Category : Health


According to a consumer health group, obesity rates in the United States went up from 22 per cent in the period between 2001 and 2003 to 24.5 per cent between 2000 and 2002. The group, Trust for America's Health, studying data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that obesity had gone up in all the 50 state of America with the exception of Oregon, where obesity rate remained steady at 21 per cent.

The highest jump in obesity rate was found in Alabama, which showed an increase of 1.5 per cent to 27.7 per cent. Other states with increasing numbers of overweight people included Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee, among others. Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Montana scored better with lower increase in obesity. Colorado showed the lowest obesity rate with 16.8 per cent.


The report, ?'F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2005', said that about one-fourth of adults in over 10 American states were obese, which is defined as have a body mass index of 30 or more.

"We have a crisis of poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the US, and it's time we dealt with it," said Shelley A Hearne, executive director of Trust for America's Health.

The authors of the study called for better government policies to reduce obesity in the country. "While it's indisputable that individual behavior ?- eating less and exercising more ?- is critical to addressing this problem, the government and private industry also have important roles to play. The bottom line is that there is a lot more that could and should be done," said Parris N Glendening, one of the authors of the report. He felt that the federal programs aimed at decreasing this health menace were ?'too limited' and many more programs were required to make a significant change.

The report recommended certain federal and community measures that could help curb the problem. This included free and low-budget diet and exercise programs as well as health food promotions. It also called for better programs in schools to curb childhood obesity, which has hit a national average of 15 per cent in the US.

Analyzing the cost of health ailments arising from obesity, the report said that American taxpayers shelled out about US$ 39 billion in 2003 for treating conditions like cardiac ailments, diabetes and other disorders that have roots in excess weight.