Kansas and Missouri obesity rates projected to double by 2030

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Missourians and Kansans might want to invest in some awls. A report released today by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forecasts that both Kansas and Missouri will rank in the top 10 of obese adults by 2030. The findings in F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2012, suggest that Kansas will be the seventh fattest state with an obesity rate of 62.1 percent. Only one place behind is Missouri with a projected adult obesity rate of 61.9 percent. Mississippi would have the highest obesity rate with two out of every three adults falling into that category.

The new study, which is meant to serve as an advocacy tool for how reducing obesity could lower health-care costs, represents a marked jump from the latest ratings from the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC reported that 30.3 percent of Missouri adults (12th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia) and 29.6 percent of Kansas adults (13th) were obese in 2011.