For
Immediate Release:
December 10, 2003
Contact:
Joyce Everhart
Division
of Community Health
(573)
526-5520
Missouri’s obesity rate continues to grow, according to the
latest figures reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). Although West Virginia leads the states with the highest obesity
prevalence rate at 27.5 percent, Missouri is not far behind with 23.2 percent
of its adult citizens considered obese in the year 2002. That percentage
represents almost twice the 12 percent obesity rate reported in Missouri only a
little more than a decade ago.
Other top ranking states, according to CDC’s self-reporting
system of collecting data nationwide, include Mississippi, South Carolina,
Alabama, Texas and Louisiana. The state with the lowest rate of obesity
prevalence is Colorado checking in at 16.5 percent.
The incidence of overweight and
obese individuals continues to be at levels worrisome to the Missouri
Department of Health and Senior Services, particularly considering overall
public health consequences in terms of life spans and economic costs. Obesity has been linked to poor pregnancy outcomes;
asthma; arthritis; hypertension; ovarian cysts; gall bladder disease; heart
disease; certain types of cancer; type 2 diabetes; stroke; and psychological
disorders such as depression and bulimia. Economically, it has been estimated
by CDC that the U.S. spends an estimated $117 billion annually in extra health
costs related to obesity.
It was
these alarming statistics that prompted Missouri’s health department to take
action earlier this year in
creating the new Missouri Council on the Prevention and Management of
Overweight and Obesity. The group reflects a gathering of almost 40 Missouri
leaders representing a number of spheres of influence including schools, health
education agencies, the legislature, colleges and universities, health
insurance carriers, primary care individuals and the general public. Its charge
is to begin
reviewing Missouri’s obesity burden, needs, barriers and issues, and to
determine steps to curb the continuing rise in number of overweight and obese
Missourians.
“While
the state can take steps to create an environment for healthy living, it will
still be up to individual Missourians to commit to a healthier lifestyle,” said
Director Richard C. Dunn, Missouri Department of Health and Senior
Services. “We urge all our citizens to
work to improve their eating and exercising habits, especially those in the
roles of modeling such habits to the next generation.”
“Each day, health care practitioners
must face the staggering medical complications related to obesity and physical
inactivity,” said Christopher Case, M.D., Missouri State Medical Association
and member of the state’s obesity council.
“Fortunately, many of our patients make necessary lifestyle changes and
are rewarded by significant benefits to their health and well-being, and often
a reduction or discontinuation of many medications. Through the hard work of this council, we hope to be able to
prevent many of the obesity-related health consequences in future generations
of Missourians.”
“This problem is very
complex and is not easy to know how to best deal with it,” added Daryl Lynch,
M.D., president of Missouri Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics and also a
member of the obesity council. “We must be very aware of what is happening with
the children
of Missouri and
obesity. The effects are far-reaching and could be devastating. This
is truly a crisis that must continue to be ‘front-burner’ with the state.”
Obesity
newsletter monitors developments worldwide
The
state’s health department recently secured funds from CDC to help support the
council’s work in developing an action plan to improve the state’s capacity to
address the crisis.
At
the same time, the department posts the Overweight and Obesity Observer newsletter
on its website at http://www.dhss.state.mo.us/balance/observer.htm. The
newsletter is a compilation of news clips provided to keep Missourians updated
on what is happening worldwide in terms of research and steps taken to combat
the obesity epidemic.
The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration took similar action against the rising rate of
obesity when it held an open public meeting last month to “address FDA's role and responsibility in addressing the major
public health problem of obesity, promoting better consumer dietary and
lifestyle choices that have the potential to improve the health and well-being
of Americans, and how best to build a framework for messages to consumers about
reducing obesity and achieving better nutrition.”
More information regarding
the Missouri’s council and obesity in general, go to http://www.dhss.state.mo.us/MissouriNutrition/obesity.htm.
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