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Little change for West Virginia’s obesity rate which is still among highest in U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — West Virginians remain among the most obese in the United States.

The Mountain State has the 2nd highest obesity rate nationally at 35.6 percent. Tied with Alabama and Mississippi, the states are behind only Louisiana with an obesity rate of 36.2 percent, according to the 13th Annual State of Obesity Report: Better Policies for a Healthier America released Thursday.

“Obesity remains one of the biggest and costliest health threats to the country, increasing risks for a range of health problems like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, arthritis and some forms of cancer,” said Richard Hamburg, interim president and CEO of the Trust for America’s Health.

The Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation put out the yearly report on state-by-state rankings of obesity rates.

“The stakes could not be higher. The obesity epidemic is taking a toll on the country’s health,” said Dr. Donald Schwarz, vice president of program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Joining Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi in the Top Five was Kentucky with an obesity rate of 34.6 percent.

Rates climbed in Kansas and Kentucky between 2014 and 2015 while declining in Minnesota, Montana, New York and Ohio, the first time in the past decade that any states have reported decreases with the exception of Washington, D.C. in 2010.

Overall, West Virginia was one of the many states seeing little change in obesity rates which areĀ above 20 percent in all states. A total of 25 states had rates higher than 30 percent.

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.

For 2015, Colorado had the lowest obesity rate at 20.2 percent.

Other findings of the State of Obesity report included the following:

– 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.

– 10 of the 12 states with the highest rates of diabetes were in the South and rates of diabetes increased in three states: Louisiana, Mississippi and Oregon. West Virginia’s diabetes rate was 14.5 percent, the 2nd highest.

– West Virginia’s adult rate of hypertension was 42.7, the highest in the U.S.

– Among black people, the adult obesity rate in West Virginia is 41.5 percent, the 10th highest rate in the U.S., while the adult obesity rate for white people is 35.2 percent, the highest in the U.S.

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

West Virginia’s 2014 adult obesity rate was 35.7 percent, compared with 23.9 percent in 2000 and 13.7 percent in 1990.

This year’s report again included policy recommendations for addressing obesity covering investments in obesity prevention, early childhood policies and programs, and school-based and community-based policies and programs.

“We issue this report each year because, while obesity is one of the most significant health problems, if we really invested in it and implemented the best strategies and programs to support improved nutrition and increased physical activity — particularly among young children on a broad scale — we could make significant progress in reducing and preventing obesity,” Hamburg said.





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