A report released by two nonprofit groups shows West Virginia has the highest rate of obesity among adults in the nation, and Arkansas isn't far behind.
The report released Thursday by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation analyzed figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found West Virginia had an obesity rate of 37.7 percent. Mississippi was second at 37.3 percent and Alabama and Arkansas were tied for third at 35.7 percent.
The report says the adult obesity rate increased between 2015 and 2016 in Colorado, Minnesota, Washington and West Virginia, fell in Kansas and remained stable elsewhere.
The report noted that 25 states had rates above 30 percent, compared to just a dozen states in 2010.
Colorado has the lowest rate at 22.3 percent.
According to the report's methodology, it ranked states based on data it analyzed from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That data was obtained through a phone survey of a random sample of adults in all 50 states, the report said, noting the participants' body mass indexes were "calculated by dividing self-reported weight in kilograms by the square of self-reported height in meters." The information was then used to estimate the percentage of a state that is obese.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.