CDC releases county by county obesity rates

By William Atkins
Saturday, 21 November 2009 18:38

Science - Health

According to a first-time report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the counties in the Appalachian region of the country report high rates of obesity and diabetes in more than 80% of its counties. A majority of counties in the Deep South also report the same.


According to the CDC article “Highest Rates of Obesity, Diabetes in the South, Appalachia, and Some Tribal Lands,” the organization has completed the first county-by-county survey of obesity in the United States.

In Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia—the Appalachian region—the CDC reports that over than 80% of its counties report high rates of obesity and diabetes.

In the Deep South—Alabama, Mississippi, Louisian, Georgia, and South Carolina—high rates of obesity and diabetes are reported in about 75% of its counties.

The national rate of obesity in the United States, as reported by the CDC, is 26.1%--or about one in four U.S. citizens.

Obesity is defined as being excessively overweight.

The CDC estimates that about 8% of the U.S. population (about 24 million people) has diabetes, with about 5.7 million of these people being undiagnosed.

Obese people are at a much higher risk of getting type 2 diabetes or diabetes mellitus type 2.

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