Posted on August 21, 2008

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Adult Obesity Rates Continue to Increase, Report Finds

Adult obesity rates increased in thirty-seven states in the past year, and obesity rates now exceed 25 percent in twenty-eight states, a new report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) finds.

The fifth in a series of annual TFAH-produced reports that examine state obesity rates and government policies, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2008 (144 pages, PDF) found that adult obesity rates rose for a second consecutive year in twenty-four states and for a third consecutive year in nineteen states, with no state showing a decline in its rate. More than 25 percent of adults are obese in twenty-eight states, which is an increase from nineteen states last year, while more than 20 percent of adults are obese in every state except Colorado. In 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent.

Although many promising policies have emerged to promote physical activity and good nutrition in communities, the report concludes they are not being adopted or implemented at levels needed to turn around this health crisis. While the national average of obese adults was 15 percent in 1980, the latest study found an estimated two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, including an estimated 23 million children (the report does not include new state-level data for children this year).

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the report analyzes data from the annual Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, which this year found Mississippi to have the highest rate of obesity and Colorado the lowest rate. Eleven of the fifteen states with the highest obesity rates are in the South, while Northeastern and Western states continue to have the lowest obesity rates.

The report's authors recommend that the federal government convene partners from state and local governments, businesses, communities, and schools to create and implement a strategy to combat obesity, with the goal of reversing the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. "America's future depends on the health of our country. The obesity epidemic is lowering our productivity and dramatically increasing our healthcare costs," said TFAH executive director Jeff Levi. "Even though communities have started taking action...the country's response has been severely limited. For significant change to happen, combating obesity must become a national priority."

“New Report: Adult Obesity Rates Rise in 37 States, Obesity Rates Now Exceed 25 Percent in More Than Half of States.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Press Release 8/19/08.

Primary Subject: Health
Location(s): National

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