The Enquirer

Blacks slightly more likely to be obese, poll shows.

Suburban Hamilton County had highest proportion of non-obese, non-overweight adults.

One of 20 adults is so obese their lives could be cut short by 10 years.

Obesity in the Cincinnati region has grown by 50 percent in the last 15 years and the area now may have a higher proportion of overweight and obese people than the nation, the new Greater Cincinnati Community Health Status Survey shows.

The poll results underscore what obesity costs, both in human suffering and the drain on the public health system (especially Medicare and Medicaid).

The survey findings released Tuesday morning show local adults are both more overweight than the nation (65 percent vs. 63 percent) and more obese (33 percent vs. 28 percent). In addition, the survey also found that black adults are more obese and overweight than white adults (75 percent vs. 64 percent).

"Obesity in our region has grown over the past several years, and we are now worse than the national Healthy People 2020 goal of a 30.5 percent obesity rate," said Jaime Love, program officer for health eating and active living for Norwood-based Interact for Health. Interact paid for the poll.

According to the poll, more than 1 of every 20 adults in the region is very severely obese (having a BMI over 40). Studies show such severely overweight people typically have their normal life expectancy cut by 10 years.

Obesity is a major risk factor for certain types of breast and colon cancer as well as preventable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, federal health officials warns.

Meanwhile, projections show Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana spent more than $12 billion on Medicaid costs related to obesity in 2013. By 2020, if the three states each reduce their average body mass index (BMI) by 5 percent then about 875,000 fewer people would have diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and hypertension. Taxpayers, companies and individuals also would have to spend less to treat obesity-related diseases.

The poll reveals how obesity "is not evenly distributed across all groups in Greater Cincinnati," Love said in a news release. More than 7 in 10 African Americans (75 percent) are overweight or obese compared to 6 in 10 whites (64 percent).

Unlike other races, African Americans are also more likely to be obese than overweight. Four out of 10 local blacks are obese and 3 out of 10 are overweight, compared to whites 4 out of 10 are obese while 3 out of 10 overweight.

Obesity rates were lowest in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties with more than 1 in 4 adults (27 percent). But overweight rates in those counties were also the highest in the region at 38 percent or nearly 4 of 10 adults, the poll shows.

The city of Cincinnati had the highest rate of obesity, with nearly 4 of 10 adults or 38 percent classified that way.

The highest proportion of non-obese, non-overweight adults was in suburban Hamilton County, with 4 in 10 or 41 percent falling in that group.

Across the region, roughly half of the adults who considered themselves to be in fair or poor health were obese. People from age 30 to 64 were most likely to be obese (with more than a third of all adults). Yet 1 in 5 people aged 18 to 29 were obese, as were 3 of 10 senior citizens. People living in poverty also were slightly more likely to be obese than adults, the poll showed.

Interact, which was formerly called the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, promotes healthy living through grants, education and policy in 20 counties in Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana.

The non-profit has conducted the survey every three or so years since 1999. When the poll began in 1999, just over 2 of 10 local adults (22 percent) was obese – the same rate as found nationally back then.

The current poll was conducted by the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research. The results are based on telephone interviews with 4,929 randomly selected adults from Aug. 20, 2013 to Jan. 19, 2014. The margin of error of the poll was plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.⬛