Chronic Disease Directors Identify Barriers to Addressing Obesity
According to a new survey of 26 state-level chronic disease directors, who are government experts on disease prevention, the three biggest barriers to effectively addressing obesity are:
- Inadequate funding of health initiatives;
- The political view that obesity is more of a personal responsibility issue than a public policy issue; and
- Lack of political will to solve the obesity problem.
Other key findings in the report include:
- West Virginia has the highest rate of type 2 diabetes among adults at 10.4 percent; Alaska has the lowest rate at 4.5 percent.
- Mississippi has the highest rate of hypertension among adults at 23.7 percent; Utah has the lowest rate at 19.8 percent.
- 11 states require their school lunches to meet higher nutritional standards than U.S. Department of Agriculture requirements.
- 16 states and Washington, D.C., have passed taxes on junk food or sodas.
- 24 states have passed laws limiting obesity-related law suits.
The full report with complete state rankings in all categories is available on TFAH’s Web site at www.healthyamericans.org. The report was supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
State-By-State Adult Obesity Rankings
Note: 1 = Highest rate of adult obesity, 51 = lowest. Rankings are based on combining three years of data (2003-2005) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Surveillance System to "stabilize" data for comparison purposes. States with statistically significant increases are noted with an asterisk (*). Additional information about methodologies and confidence intervals are available in the report.
1: Mississippi*
2: Alabama
3: West Virginia
4: Louisiana*
5: Kentucky*
6: Tennessee
7: Arkansas*
8 (tie): Indiana*; South Carolina*
10: Texas
11: Michigan
12: Georgia*
13: Oklahoma*
14: Missouri*
15 (tie): Ohio*, Alaska
17: North Carolina*
18: North Dakota
19: Pennsylvania*
20: Nebraska*
21: Iowa
22: South Dakota*
23: Illinois*
24: Maryland*
25: Virginia
26: Kansas
27: Minnesota
28: Wisconsin*
29: Delaware*
30 California*
31 (tie): Idaho*, Washington*
33: Oregon*
34: Maine
35: Florida*
36 (tie): Wyoming*, New Hampshire*, New York
39: D.C.
40 (tie): New Jersey*, New Mexico*
42: Nevada
43 (tie): Arizona, Utah*
45: Montana
46: Connecticut*
47 (tie): Rhode Island*, Vermont
49: Massachusetts*
50: Hawaii
51: Colorado.
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Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority. For more information, visit www.healthyamericans.org.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. Helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need—the Foundation expects to make a difference in our lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
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