by Emily P. Walker

The number of obese adults in the U.S. continues to rise, despite a growing number of federal anti-obesity initiatives in the past two years, according to a new report.

The seventh annual “F as in Fat” report, released Tuesday by the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found that obesity rates continued to rise in 28 states from 2007 through 2009.

Nationally, two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of kids and teens are now overweight or obese.

Overall, the number of obese adults in the U.S. has doubled since 1980. The number of obese kids has quadrupled and the number of obese adolescents and teens has tripled, the report said.

The report — which also examined obesity trends in individual states — pinpointed a number of disturbing trends, including that at least one in four adult residents are obese in a total of 38 states. Back in 1991, not a single state had an obesity rate above 20%

Also, the number of states in which at least 30% of the population is obese doubled from four to eight since last year’s report and now includes Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

“The continued increase in adult obesity rates means we need to do much more, nationally and locally, to make sure the effort matches the seriousness of the problem,” said Jim Marks, senior vice president, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, during a Tuesday morning media teleconference to announce the report’s findings.

Federal attention to the epidemic has greatly increased in the past several years.

The president assembled an Obesity Task Force, which aims to get the national childhood obesity rate from 17% to 5% by 2030.

The First Lady launched her “Let’s Move” campaign, extolling the virtues of physical fitness and healthy eating.

And, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) focuses on prevention of obesity by measures such as requiring chain restaurants to list calorie counts on menus. The PPACA also eliminates patient copays for annual wellness visits during which a doctor will measure a patient’s BMI and discuss a fitness plan, and provides $15 billion in mandatory appropriations for public health and prevention programs over the next decade.

But any positive changes from those initiatives are not yet apparent enough to show a statistical change in national obesity rates, said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health and one of the report authors.

For the report, researchers compared state obesity data from 2006 through 2008 with data from 2007 through 2009. Data are based on telephone surveys conducted by state health departments and rely on individuals self-reporting height and weight, which researchers then used to calculate body mass index to determine whether a person is overweight or obese.

The report provides state rankings for each year. Mississippi again weighed in as the most obese state, with about 34% of its population defined as “obese,” the sixth consecutive year the Gulf Coast state has held that unlucky distinction.

Trailing close behind are Alabama and Tennessee, which tied for second place.

The least obese state was Colorado, where just 19% of the population is obese, followed by Connecticut and the District of Columbia, which is the only “state” that managed to shrink its collective waistline from 2007 through 2009.

The report also found:

* Poverty is linked to obesity. Six of the states with the highest poverty rates are also in the top 10 states with the highest obesity rates.
* Southern states are the most obese and have the highest hypertension rates. Ten of the top 11 states with the highest adult obesity rates are in the South, and nine of the 10 states with the highest childhood obesity rates are in the South. The ten states with the highest hypertension rates are located in the South.
* Racial minorities are disproportionately obese. Adult obesity rates among blacks are at 30% or above in 43 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 19 states for Latinos, and just one state for whites. The difference in obesity rates among blacks, Hispanics, and whites “reflects longstanding disparities in income, education, and access to healthcare,” the report authors said.

“Reversing the obesity epidemic will require individuals, families, schools, communities, businesses, government, and every other sector of American society to reduce the barriers to healthy eating and active living,” the report authors wrote. “Every American must have the chance to lead a healthy lifestyle.”

The report authors recommend working to eliminating so-called “food deserts” — geographic locations with few or no places to buy affordable, healthy foods — as well the expansion of community-based obesity prevention programs; steps to ensure access to healthcare for all Americans; and measures to ensure that school children have healthy food through the Children Nutrition bill.

The report also called for action, via the Surface Transportation Authorization Act, to make sure that people have safe sidewalks and trails for walking.

Emily P. Walker is a MedPage Today Washington Correspondent.

Originally published in MedPage Today. Visit MedPageToday.com for more obesity news.