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Obesity is more common in rural areas than in cities in the United States, two new studies have found.

The two analyses, one of adults and the other of children, used data on weight, height and where people lived that was gathered in a series of nationally representative surveys from 2001 to 2016. They were published online together in JAMA.

The adult study included 10,792 men and women 20 and older. In the 2013-16 survey period, 39 percent were obese — defined as having a body mass index of 30 or above — including 8 percent who were severely obese, with a B.M.I. of 40 or more. Prevalence of obesity was 36.5 percent among men and 40.8 percent among women, including severe obesity of 5.5 percent for men and 9.8 percent for women. In the study of 6,863 children 2 to 19 years old, 17.8 percent were obese, including 5.8 percent who were severely obese.

“I want to emphasize that this survey — the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey — is the gold standard” in accuracy for obesity rates, said Cynthia L. Ogden, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an author on both studies.