Ohio Has 11th Highest Obesity Rate In U.S.: Report

CLEVELAND — Ohio has the 11th highest obesity rate in the nation, according to a new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Buckeye State's obesity rate grew between 2016 and 2017 and now sits at 33.8 percent for adults.

Obesity's medical concerns can be a heavy weight on national, and state, medical costs. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for American Health estimate that $149 billion in healthcare spending, annually, is related to obesity.

“Obesity is a major challenge in nearly every state and our role as public health leaders is to ensure we’re doing everything we can to address it,” said John Wiesman, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and secretary of health at the Washington State Department of Health. “Our goal at the state level is to work across sectors to advocate for and implement evidence-based policies that encourage active healthy living and support healthy and safe communities that provide access to healthy foods, physical activity, and clinical preventive services.”

The Midwest and South represent the majority of the states with the highest obesity rates. Ohio falls just outside of a top 10 that is led by West Virginia, with an adult obesity rate of 38.1 percent. Here are the top 10 states by adult obesity rate:

1. West Virginia (38.1 percent)
2. Mississippi (37.3 percent)
3. Oklahoma (36.5 percent)
4. Iowa (36.4 percent)
5. Alabama (36.3 percent)
6. Louisiana (36.2 percent)
7. Arkansas (35 percent)
8. Kentucky (34.3 percent)
9. Alaska (34.2 percent)
10. South Carolina (34.1 percent)

The Robert Wood Johnson and the Trust for American Health (TAH) gathered data on obesity using CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance. The "BRFSS is an annual cross-sectional survey designed to measure behavioral risk factors in the adult population (18 years of age or older) living in households. Data are collected from a random sample of adults (one per household) through a telephone survey," the TAH said.

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