For 2005 to 2008, Ohio had the 10th highest rate of adult obesity with an average rate of 28.6 percent.
But that is of little consolation.
The current three-year average is 29 percent.
Ohio’s children are the 12 most obese in the nation. They ranked 15th for the prior period.
A recent study of more than 1,000 Clark County’s third-graders showed more than 45 percent of them to be considered either overweight or obese — a more than 10 percent jump from the state’s average for that age five years ago, Patterson said. “That concerns me.”
The situation is bleakest for minorities.
The state’s adult obesity rate was 40.9 percent for blacks and 32.5 percent for Latinos, compared with 28.3 percent among whites.
Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, said the safety of neighborhoods, education, access to grocery stores and economics disparages are among factors that contribute to obesity in states like Ohio.
“It really is income that is a major drive of this epidemic,” he said, noting that people should both fight for policy change and take personal responsibility.
James Marks, senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said that adult and childhood obesity are not just a matter of improving health. He said companies consider weight statistics when they decided where to locate.
“They don’t want to move where health care cost will be higher and productivity is going to be lower,” he said.
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