By Matt Carroll, Boston Globe | May 6, 2010

Obesity is a problem for many people across the country. A joint study published last year by a team from the UMass Medical School and the state Department of Public Health found 11 Massachusetts communities or city neighborhoods where more than 30 percent of the adults were obese. The highest rates were in urban areas: Mattapan, Roxbury, New Bedford (02746 Zip), South Dorchester, Springfield (01109), Springfield (01104/01151), Fall River (02724), and Brockton (02301). Affluent communities or places with heavy concentrations of students had better rankings: Cambridge (02138), Back Bay/Beacon Hill, Central Boston, Fenway-Kenmore, Amherst, and Brookline. Percents in these communities ranged from 7.7 to 10.6. Obesity was defined as having a body mass index greater than 30 kilograms per square meter. The research, based on 2005 data, was published in the American Journal of Public Health in March 2009. (The map includes data only at the city or town level. The data below contains data at the Zip code level for 12 large cities.)

Want to create your own chart, using this data? The Globe is introducing interactive charts that allow readers to create their own graphics. Click on “view data” in the lower right corner of the graphic to see the data. Then click on “visualize” at the bottom of the data, and pick the graphic display that you think works best. Click on “publish” to display the data to the Web. The charts are publicly displayed on many-eyes.com. Questions, comments, or suggestions? E-mail Matt Carroll at: mcarroll@globe.com or twitter.com/GlobeMattC.