Study: 1 in 4 New Yorkers obese

Rates highest among minority groups; income link cited

One in every four New Yorkers is considered obese, and yet the state still has one of the lowest obesity rates in the nation, according to new national data.

At 25.7 percent, New York’s adult obesity rate ranks 45th when compared to 49 other states and the District of Columbia, according to a report published this month by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report contained mostly bad news: Over the past five

years, 31 states saw statistically significant increases in their obesity rates, while no state experienced a statistically significant decrease. There also continued to be racial and ethnic disparities in obesity rates. Latino Americans were more likely to be obese than other racial groups at 47 percent, followed by black Americans at 46.8 percent and white Americans at 37.9 percent.

“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,” said John Auerbach, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health. “The good news is that there is growing evidence that certain prevention programs can reverse these trends. But we won’t see meaningful declines in state and national obesity rates until they are implemented throughout the nation and receive sustained support.”

While the rate of obesity in New York lags most other states, disparities across race, ethnicity, age and gender mirrored trends nationwide.

Men, for example, are slightly more likely to be obese than women (26.1 percent versus 25.3 percent), as are New Yorkers 45 years of age and older.

The most striking disparities occurred across racial and ethnic groups, though — with 33.4 percent of black New Yorkers considered obese compared to 28.7 percent of Latinos and 24.7 percent of whites.

Notably absent from the report were obesity statistics for Native Americans, who are more likely to experience obesity and poor health than any other racial group, yet are often underrepresented in statistic-based reporting, said Laurence Schell, director of the University at Albany’s Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities.

“Many do not want to participate in government surveys,” he said. “But we know that the most recent statistics, incomplete as they may be, show that 75 percent of American Indian/alaskan natives are overweight or obese.”

There are plenty of reasons such disparities might exist between white and minority communities, Schell said.

Income is a big one, with lower-income adults more likely to live in areas that lack access to fresh, healthy foods and lowerincome children more likely to attend schools that can’t afford as many after-school sports and activities.

Generational obesity is another explanation, he said. Big mothers are more likely to give birth to big babies, who are more likely to grow up obese and have obese babies — a cycle that can be difficult to break.

Less talked about issues, he said, might include environmental factors such as exposure to pesticides and herbicides, and the role that stress and sleep play in perpetuating obesity.

“I think it’s pretty clear that being poor is stressful, and being stressed does have an effect on your endocrine system and appetite,” he said. “It’s really an understudied area.”