Wyoming near best in the nation for childhood obesity rates | Health

As the health survey has been "dramatically redesigned" in recent years, it is difficult to compare these data to previous years, the foundation said in a preamble of the report. But the Wyoming rate appears to be an improvement over the state of early 2016, while 12.9% of young people were obese.

Although the report focuses on youth obesity, it also includes numbers for adults: nearly 29% of older Wyomingites were obese in 2017, making it the 34th highest rate in the country and a 1 point increase from 2016. People aged 45 to 64 were obese, with a slightly higher rate for men (29.5%) than for women (28.1%).

Girirdhar Mallya, senior policy officer at the foundation, said the Wyoming exchange rate, while still high, was well below the national average. On the one hand, he pointed to the "West African mountain culture of being outdoors and being physically active"; if a child is physically active is a key factor in determining whether this child will be obese or not.

Secondly, Mallya said that the state has put in place policies – such as healthy eating and physical activity from the initial education – that have lowered rates.

Similarly, primary schools and colleges have requirements for physical education, but not high schools, he said.

Finally, he noted that Wyoming is largely white and that Hispanic and African-American children tend to have higher rates of obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "children of racial and ethnic minorities often live in communities where they have difficulty accessing affordable and healthy food or safe physical activity, which contributes to increase rates of obesity ".

In Wyoming, 27.9% of white adults were obese in 2017. In comparison, 28.8% of Latino residents were obese, according to the report. No data was available for African-American or Amerindian Wyomingites.

Wyoming's relatively low rate is a rare good news for young people's health. In June, another national study – this time done by the Annie E. Casey Foundation – ranked the state 49th among states for child health, a dismal performance motivated by the high rate of children uninsured. A previous report from the same organization had revealed that children, especially those of color, lagged behind children in other states.

Mallya said that although Wyoming performed well compared to the rest of the country, there was still room for improvement. Although the state has policies of activity and healthy eating for young children, stricter guidelines could be added. High school students could also take physical education classes, a policy adopted by 42 other states and Washington DC.

According to the report, nearly 17% of state children live in "food insecurity" – they essentially lack reliable access to healthy and affordable food – just as 12.3% of the population total. Wyoming is also one of 13 states that does not have "funding for healthy food." According to the report, "The Federal Healthy Food Initiative (HFFI) has brought grocery stores and other healthy food retailers into underserved urban and rural communities across the Americas" .

At the national level, the communities that have seen the most improvements have focused on long-term strategies that bring together professionals from a variety of fields – transportation, health, public health, and the private sector. The strategies deployed by these communities can be measured, explained Mallya, so that leaders can evaluate the evolution of work.

He said that if a person is obese in his childhood, she is more likely to be also in adulthood and may then face a higher likelihood of heart disease, diabetes and diabetes. Stroke;

But that does not mean that overweight children are doomed; far from it, said Mallya.

"I think the first thing to keep in mind, especially for children, is that they continue to grow and grow," he said. "It's not because a child is obese today that it's going to happen in a year or two." At the individual level, we like to remind children, parents and families that They can make changes. "