Obesity rates in adults climbing in nearly every state, study finds

WASHINGTON -- Obesity rates have risen in nearly every state but Oregon, according to an advocacy group that called on the government and the private sector to get more involved in the battle against expanding waistlines.

The advocacy group, Trust for America's Health, said data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the percentage of obese adults for 2002-04 stood at 22.7 percent nationally. The percentage for the previous cycle, 2001-03, was 22 percent.

The state exhibiting the largest increase in obesity was Alabama, by 1.5 percentage points to 27.7 percent. Oregon's rate held steady at 21 percent.

The report said the states with the highest percentage of obese adults are Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

The states with the lowest percentage of obese adults are Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Montana. Hawaii was not included in the report.

An official with the Trust for America's Health said the United States is stuck in ''debate limbo" about how the government should confront obesity. She used the report to call for more government action on several fronts, such as ensuring that land-use plans promote physical activity; that school lunch programs serve healthier meals; and that Medicaid recipients get access to subsidized fitness programs, such as YMCA aerobics classes.

''We have a crisis of poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the US, and it's time we dealt with it," said Shelley A. Hearne, executive director of the organization. Radley Balko, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said he is wary of the call for more government action on obesity. The institute is a think tank that prefers free-market approaches to problems.

''I think obesity is a very personal issue," he said. ''What you eat and how often you exercise, if that comes within the government's purview, it's difficult to think of what's left that isn't."

Health policy analysts maintain that obesity increases the burden on taxpayers because it requires the Medicare and Medicaid programs to cover the treatment of diseases caused by obesity. The report issued yesterday said taxpayers spent $39 billion in 2003 for the treatment of conditions attributable to obesity.

Trust for America's Health recommended mandatory screening for obesity among Medicaid recipients, as well as nutritional counseling. ''Better prevention and disease-management programs will result in cost savings to the system as a whole," the report said.

Balko said it's not clear whether the government really knows how to persuade people to make better decisions. Open-ended entitlement programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, don't provide much of a financial incentive for people to watch their weight; the government just picks up the cost of treating diseases for those patients, regardless of the amounts, he said.

He said he prefers that the government give Medicaid and Medicare recipients an incentive to open medical savings accounts; they would save money when they did not access the system.