Arkansas lost its spot as the state with the highest adult obesity rate in the country, falling to No. 6 as the estimated percentage of adults who were considered to be obese fell slightly, according to a report released Thursday.
According to the report by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 34.5 percent of Arkansas adults were considered obese, based on their reported height and weight, in 2015, down from 35.9 percent in 2014.
Although the decrease wasn't considered to be statistically significant, Arkansas improved in the rankings as the rates in other states increased or dropped by smaller amounts.
Louisiana, which was ranked No. 4 in 2014, moved to the top spot in 2015 as the percentage of its adults who were considered obese increased slightly to 36.2.
The improvement in Arkansas' rank was welcomed by state public-health officials helping to implement a 10-year plan, endorsed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson last fall, to help Arkansans lose weight and live healthier lifestyles.
Joe Thompson, director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a division of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, called Arkansas' obesity rate in 2015 "a pretty major improvement."
"We didn't become obese overnight, and we're not going to be healthy weight overnight either, but we're moving in the right direction," Thompson said.
"It's clearly better to be No. 6 than it is to be No. 1 or No. 2."
West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama tied for the No. 2 spot, with 35.6 percent of their adults considered obese in 2015.
They were followed by Kentucky, where 34.6 percent of adults were considered obese, up from 31.6 percent in 2014.
Kentucky and Kansas were the only states with statistically significant increases, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the obesity rate decreased by statistically significant amounts in Minnesota, Montana, New York and Ohio, marking the first time the rate in any state has decreased by a significant amount in the past decade.
Colorado had the lowest rate, with 20.2 percent of its adults considered obese.
Obesity ranks closely behind tobacco use as "probably the root cause of most illness and premature death," with links to high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, Thompson said.
Poverty and lifestyle have contributed to high obesity rates in Arkansas and other Southern states, he said.
"We like fried foods. We like to not exercise as much as we should," Thompson said. "Both of those combined lead to too many calories, and our bodies are pretty good at storing those as fat."
Nationwide, the report found that, after decades of increasing, obesity rates have leveled off for children and are rising more slowly for adults, but they remain "alarmingly higher than they were a generation ago."
The rankings are based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which uses information from telephone surveys of more than 400,000 adults nationwide each year by state health departments.
The rate for Arkansas had a margin of error of 2.3 percent in 2015 and 2.1 percent in 2014.
An adult's height and weight are used to calculate a "body mass index" that determines whether a person is obese.
According to the formula used to calculate the index, a 6-foot-tall person would be considered overweight if he weighed more than 184 pounds and obese if he weighed more than 221 pounds.
The obesity rates for specific ethnic groups in Arkansas, compared with the same groups in other states, were especially high, according to the report.
The state ranked No. 1 in obesity among black adults, with 43.9 percent considered obese.
Among white adults, the obesity rate of 33.2 percent was the second-highest in the country. For obesity in Hispanics, the state ranked third, with 36.9 percent considered obese.
The report also found Arkansas had the second-highest percentage of adults in both 2014 and 2015 who reported being physically inactive, meaning they did not exercise outside of performing work duties during the previous 30 days.
The percentage of adults who reported being inactive increased from 30.7 in 2014 to to 34.2 in 2015.
Mississippi had the highest inactivity rate each year, with the percentage of adults who reported being inactive increasing from 31.6 in 2014 to 36.8 in 2015.
The Healthy Active Arkansas plan calls on employers, schools, state agencies and cities to take steps to encourage exercise and healthful eating habits.
Arkansas Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe and representatives of UAMS, the Center for Health Improvement, Baptist Health, the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention, Arkansas Children's Hospital, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, the Minority Health Commission and the state departments of Health and Human Services have taken steps toward focusing on a nonprofit organization that will apply for grants to help implement the plan, said Marisha DiCarlo, who is helping to lead the Health Department's efforts.
One grant would go toward enhancing the Healthy Active Arkansas website, healthyactive.org, Jeff LeMaster, a spokesman for the Rockefeller Institute, said.
DiCarlo said the group hopes to encourage efforts such Fresh2You, a repurposed Rock Region Metro bus that last month began delivering produce from area farmers to Little Rock neighborhoods and public housing projects.
"We need to have a focus on addressing obesity in the state and providing opportunities where everyone can have a chance to be at a healthy weight and to be healthy and vital and productive," DiCarlo said.
A Section on 09/02/2016