Despite a statewide campaign aimed at slimming waistlines, Arkansas climbed three spots to tie for third in the latest ranking of states with the highest obesity rates, according to a report released Thursday.
"The State of Obesity" report by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found that 35.7 percent of Arkansas adults were considered obese, based on their reported height and weight, in 2016, up from 34.5 percent in 2015.
While that increase was not considered to be statistically significant, the state increased in the rankings as the rates for Kentucky and Louisiana fell slightly.
Alabama had the same percentage of adults considered obese and also ranked third, but its rate increased by a smaller amount than Arkansas' and is listed below Arkansas in the report.
West Virginia, meanwhile, rose to No. 1 as its rate increased from 35.6 percent to 37.7 percent, the only change in rate among the top six states that was considered statistically significant. Louisiana, which held the top spot in 2015, fell to No. 5.
Joe Thompson, director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, said the report "again documents the risk that Arkansas citizens have and the health impact that they're experiencing."
"I'm not sure it matters whether we're No. 6 or No. 3 -- we don't need to be there," he said.
The 10-year Healthy Active Arkansas plan, endorsed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2015, calls on state agencies, businesses, schools and other entities to take steps, such as offering nutritious food and implementing workplace wellness programs, to help reduce obesity rates.
A report released that year found that Arkansas' 2014 adult obesity rate, 35.9 percent, was the highest in the country.
"It's not something you can fix overnight, but that education has to continue, and the governor is committed to continue to push that message out," Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said.
Thompson said obesity is a "major contributor to almost every disease pathway, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer."
Pointing to clues in the report about the cause of obesity among Arkansans, he noted that the state ranked first in the country in the percentage of adults who reported being inactive, with 32.5 percent of the state's adults saying they did not exercise outside of performing work duties during the previous 30 days.
He also noted that, according to Census Bureau figures cited in the report, 18.4 percent of the state's households in 2013-15 were considered "food insecure," meaning that a lack of money limited what the people ate.
That was the second-highest percentage in the country behind Mississippi, where 21.5 percent of households were considered "food insecure."
Some Arkansans, he said, buy the "cheapest available food, which unfortunately is not very nutritious," while others live in "food deserts," places that have no grocery stores.
"The only type of food they can get comes in a cellophane wrapper [and] is not good for them," he said.
The obesity rankings are based on data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which uses information collected each year by state health departments that conduct telephone surveys of more than 400,000 adults nationwide.
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 estimate of Arkansas' obesity rate had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points in 2016 and 2.3 percentage points in 2015.
Marisha DiCarlo, who is helping to lead the state Department of Health's anti-obesity efforts, said the state has arranged for the survey to begin collecting information this year on Arkansans' sugary drink consumption.
The department has also enrolled 30 school districts, businesses and other organizations in an online program designed to help them reward employees for healthy behavior, such as exercising, eating fruits and vegetables, and not smoking.
The program is a modified version of one that has been in place for several years for state employees, she said.
The state also is working on an online tool to help employers reduce employees' consumption of soda and other sugary drinks. That will be available on an enhanced version of the Healthy Active Arkansas website, healthyactive.org, that will debut later this year, DiCarlo said.
Meanwhile, the Center for Health Improvement held meetings in May and June in Little Rock, Jonesboro, Magnolia, McGehee and Clarksville to encourage representatives of businesses, schools and other groups to form their own plans and report back on their progress in October.
Those initiatives are among projects that are being supported by $462,000 in grants awarded in February by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Blue and You Foundation to the center, Health Department, the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.
The state's ranking in the latest report is "not depressing," DiCarlo said.
"It's just a reminder that we need to keep working and try new things to try to solve an old problem."
A Section on 09/01/2017