Obesity report: Ohio needs to lose weight

State jumps to 11th in national rankings of most obese.

Ohioans are getting fatter. A new report says the percentage of adults considered obese in the Buckeye State climbed 1.3 percent between 2016 and 2017 — one of only six states to see what the authors called a significant rate increase.

Ohio rose from the 19th to the 11th most obese state in the nation, with 33.8 percent of adults classified as obese, according to the 15th annual “State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America.”

The report was released Wednesday by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“Obesity is a complex and often intractable problem and America’s obesity epidemic continues to have serious health and cost consequences for individuals, their families and our nation,” Trust for America’s Health Chief Executive Officer John Auerbach said in a prepared statement.

The report says the costs are enormous, estimating that $149 billion a year is spent directly on health care related to obesity and an additional $66 billion annually in lowered economic productivity.

The report used the Body Mass Index (BMI) to measure obesity in adults. A BMI level at 30 and above is considered obese.

Adult obesity rates vary from state to state, with a high of 38.1 percent in West Virginia and a low of 22.6 percent in Colorado.

No state had a statistically significant improvement over the past year, the report said.

“Obesity is a major challenge in nearly every state and our role as public health leaders is to ensure we’re doing everything we can to address it,” John Wiesman, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and secretary of health at the Washington State Department of Health, said in a prepared statement.

Other findings about Ohio include:

■ 68 percent of adults are considered overweight and obese, tied for 14th nationwide.

■ 11.3 percent of adults have diabetes, tied for 14th.

■ 29.6 percent of adults aren’t physically active, tied for 13th.

■ 18.6 percent of children and teenagers are obese, tied for ninth.