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Abstract:
Does this state make my butt look big?
http://healthjournalism.org/blog/2013/04/does-this-state-make-my-butt-look-big/#more-19270
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Abstract:
The geographic distribution of obesity in the US and the potential regional differences in misreporting of obesity.
Obesity (Silver Spring). 2013 Mar 20. doi: 10.1002/oby.20451. [Epub ahead of print]
Le A, Judd SE, Allison DB, Oza-Frank R, Affuso O, Safford M, Howard VJ, Howard G.
Source
Department of Biostatistics, UAB School of Public Health, Birmingham, AL.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
State-level estimates of obesity based on self-reported height and weight suggest a geographic pattern of greater obesity in the Southeastern US; however, the reliability of the ranking among these estimates assumes errors in self-reporting of height and weight are unrelated to geographic region.
DESIGN AND METHODS:
We estimated regional and state-level prevalence of obesity(body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2 ) for non-Hispanic black and white participants aged 45 and over were made from multiple sources:
1) self-reported from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS 2003-2006) (n = 677,425),
2) self-reported and direct measures from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES 2003-2008) (n = 6,615 and 6,138 respectively),
and
3) direct measures from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS 2003-2007) study (n = 30,239).
RESULTS:
Data from BRFSS suggest that the highest prevalence of obesity is in the East South Central Census division; however, direct measures suggest higher prevalence in the West North Central and East North Central Census divisions.
The regions relative ranking of obesity prevalence differs substantially between self-reported and directly measured height and weight.
CONCLUSIONS:
Geographic patterns in the prevalence of obesity based on self-reported height and weight may be misleading, and have implications for current policy proposals.
Copyright © 2013 The Obesity Society.
PMID: 23512879 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]