The percentage of Oklahomans considered obese rose for the third straight year as the state moved up to a tie for eighth place among the fattest states in the country.
The nonprofit Trust for America’s Health listed Oklahoma’s adult obesity rate at 28.1 percent in its “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America” report released Tuesday.
Oklahoma had a 26.8 percent obesity rate in the 2007 report and had ranked ninth out of the 50 states.
This year, Oklahoma is tied with neighboring Arkansas for eighth place. Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky had worse ratings.
“The report is accurate about Oklahoma,” said Adeline Yerkes, chief of Chronic Disease Services at the state Health Department. “We knew what was occurring before the report came out.”
Yerkes said the state has developed policies in the last several years and passed legislation to improve nutrition and increase physical activity for students at school but it’s too soon to see results from those efforts.
Yerkes said recommendations in the report would be included in a state plan scheduled to be rolled out next month. Those include improving the quality of food in schools, boosting the quality of physical education for students and encouraging the use of public parks.
The study also placed Oklahoma with the sixth-highest rate of type 2 diabetes, the eighth-highest rate of hypertension and the fifth-worst rate in physical inactivity.
Rankings in the report are based on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
Individuals are considered obese if their body mass index calculated by weight and height ratios is 30 or higher.
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The percentage of Oklahomans considered obese rose for the third straight year as the state moved up to a tie for eighth place among the fattest states in the country.
The nonprofit Trust for America’s Health listed Oklahoma’s adult obesity rate at 28.1 percent in its “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America” report released Tuesday.
Oklahoma had a 26.8 percent obesity rate in the 2007 report and had ranked ninth out of the 50 states.
This year, Oklahoma is tied with neighboring Arkansas for eighth place. Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky had worse ratings.
“The report is accurate about Oklahoma,” said Adeline Yerkes, chief of Chronic Disease Services at the state Health Department. “We knew what was occurring before the report came out.”
Yerkes said the state has developed policies in the last several years and passed legislation to improve nutrition and increase physical activity for students at school but it’s too soon to see results from those efforts.
Yerkes said recommendations in the report would be included in a state plan scheduled to be rolled out next month. Those include improving the quality of food in schools, boosting the quality of physical education for students and encouraging the use of public parks.
The study also placed Oklahoma with the sixth-highest rate of type 2 diabetes, the eighth-highest rate of hypertension and the fifth-worst rate in physical inactivity.
Rankings in the report are based on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
Individuals are considered obese if their body mass index calculated by weight and height ratios is 30 or higher.
