The obesity rate in the United States is, on a whole, staying steady, according to a new Gallup-Healthways report.
The report shows that the obesity rate was 26.2 percent in 2012, which is about the same as the 26.1 percent rate in 2011.
State obesity rates have also largely remained unchanged, with only three states experiencing an increase in obesity — New Jersey, North Carolina, and Georgia — and one state actually experiencing a decrease in obesity — Delaware.
Of all the states, Colorado had the lowest obesity rate at 18.7 percent. Meanwhile, West Virginia had the highest obesity rate at 33.5 percent.
The report, which is based on telephone interviews from 353,564 U.S. adults conducted between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 2012, also examined rates of diabetes and high blood pressure in the United States. Researchers found that the rate of high blood pressure was slightly lower from 2011 to 2012 — 30 percent to 29.3 percent — but state high blood pressure rates largely didn’t waver, with the exception of declining hypertension rates in Pennsylvania and Washington.
Eleven percent of people surveyed reported having diabetes, which is the same amount as 2011, researchers noted. Unsurprisingly, states with the highest high blood pressure and obesity rates were also the ones with the highest diabetes rates.