Obesity levels stable but still worrisome in state

By Elizabeth Cooney
Globe Correspondent

The nation's obesity crisis has hit Massachusetts hard -- just not as hard as the rest of the country, according to a study that takes the measure of the nation's waistline.

About 21 percent of adults in the state are obese, a figure that, while alarming, is among the lowest in the country (only Colorado is lower). But the state's children do not share that distinction: At 30 percent -- a rate that combines overweight and obesity -- they are among the middle of the pack nationally as the state prepares to begin screening children to determine if they weigh too much.

The troubling numbers come from an annual analysis released today by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy focused on health. The report, based on federal data gathered differently for adults and children, also sounds an alarm about aging and overweight Baby Boomers.

"Although we are ranked relatively well for our adults, it's an issue we are very concerned about," said John Auerbach, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health. "We have about 60 percent of adults who are overweight and that's not a statistic we are proud of, even if we look better than most of the country. That's not a good statistic, and obviously we are concerned about the percentage of children who are overweight."

National childhood obesity rates may have peaked after climbing for 25 years, today's report said, based on federal figures previously made public. Levels for Massachusetts children have stayed the same, dating to 2003. But public health specialists are not cheering the status quo.

"We are holding steady at an unacceptably high rate," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a public-health advocacy group.

Dr. David Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston, an obesity specialist, also sounded a note of caution.

"It remains too soon to tell whether obesity prevalence in children has truly plateaued, and current data suggest that the obesity epidemic among adults continues to grow," he said.

Today's report, called "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing America 2009," said no states saw decreases in adult obesity, while levels in 23 states increased in the past year. Mississippi has the highest level of adult obesity, at 32.5 percent, and also tops the list for obese and overweight children, at 44.4 percent.

Eight of the 10 states with the highest proportion of obese adults or obese and overweight children are in the South. Minnesota and Utah are tied for the lowest rate of obese and overweight children.

In Massachusetts, a major campaign to reduce obesity was introduced earlier this year by Governor Deval Patrick. One cornerstone of that effort begins in the fall: School children will have their body mass index measured and reported to their parents.

And in November of next year, restaurants with 20 or more locations in the state will be required to post calories on their menus. Other programs, under the Mass in Motion campaign, encourage eating a healthy diet and being more physically active. School breakfasts and lunches are mandated to be more nutritious.

"Some of these interventions may have modest effects in and of themselves but synergistic effects when combined. We know that the obesity epidemic is the result of many factors," Ludwig said. "It's not just poor school lunch programs, and it's not just cutbacks in physical education classes. It's also junk food advertising to kids, it's the physical layout of towns that make walking and bike riding cumbersome or dangerous. The challenge is to work on many fronts to fight this obesity epidemic."

The Trust for America's Health report also singles out Baby Boomers as more obese than their elders, a worrying trend as they approach old age. In Massachusetts, 1 in 4 Baby Boomers is obese, compared to almost 1 in 5 people over 65.

"What obesity does is add layers on all sorts of chronic conditions or exacerbates existing conditions associated with age," Levi said, giving arthritis and diabetes as examples.

Ludwig said a comprehensive national strategy could reduce obesity among all age groups, including Baby Boomers, which he calls the first generation raised with fast food as daily fare.

"Humans are not biologically programmed to get heavier and heavier with successive generations," he said. "If we reverse those forces that have produced the obesity epidemic, we have every reason to believe that prevalence will decline, potentially at a rapid rate."