A new study has found that US obesity rates are not getting better or worse. They’re staying pretty much the same as last year.
• A presentation of the current adult and child obesity rates.
• The states with the highest and the lowest obesity rates.
• A short history of how obesity rates evolved in recent decades.
• Health threats posed by obesity.
Government officials say that more than two thirds of American adults are either obese or overweight. Statistically speaking, this means that 68.6 percent (68.6%) of the adult population has an increased risk of experiencing heart attacks and strokes, as well as more chances of developing type 2 diabetes.
Te findings are the result of a telephone survey that researchers from the Trust For America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation conduct on a yearly basis. The field experts talked to individuals from all the 50 states and noticed that US obesity rates have not went significantly up or significantly down in 45 of them, in the past 12 months.
The states that have experienced small increases in obesity rates between the years of 2014 and 2015 are Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Utah, and New Mexico.
Back in 2014, the research team found that at least 30 percent (30%) if not more of the individuals in 22 of the nation’s states were obese. The South and the Midwest proved to host the states with the highest rates of obesity. A possible explanation is that the Southern diet is rich in fried foods and calories, according to a study from a couple of months ago.
There were only three (3) states that had rates of obesity higher than 35 percent (35%) – Mississippi, Arkansas, and West Virginia, whereas the state with the lowest rate of obesity turned out to be Colorado, with 21.3 percent (21.3%).
Last year, the Southern states also proved to be home to the largest numbers of type 2 diabetes patients as well as the largest numbers of individuals with high blood pressure.
While the new study has offered some good news by concluding that US obesity rates aren’t getting any higher, the situation is far from being a happy one. Surveys from the slightly distant past show that the number of obese and overweight adults living in the United States used to be a lot lower.
For instance, the data collected all the way back in 1980 reveals that no state had a rate of obesity that was above 15 percent (15%). And data collected in 1991 reveals that no state had a rate of obesity that was above 20 percent (20%).
The 2015 results of the report, dubbed “State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America”, have shown that very small steps are being taken in the right direction. The research team said that some of the participating communities are showing signs of a slight decline in the rates of early childhood obesity.
But the overall rates of childhood obesity are holding steady at 17 percent (17%).
The field experts wrote in their report that “Obesity puts some 78 million Americans at an increased risk for a range of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer”. They stressed that “Obesity is one of the biggest healthcare cost drivers — adding up to billions of dollars in preventable spending each year”.
The results of the new survey were made available earlier this week, on Monday (September 21, 2015), by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Kevin says
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