Obesity in Virginia on the rise - Lynchburg News and Advance

One in two adults in Virginia will be obese by 2030.

That’s the prediction in a lengthy health warning issued Tuesday by The Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Their report, “F as in Fat: How obesity threatens America’s future,” estimates that by 2030 adult obesity rates in all 50 states will climb above 44 percent. The South and Midwest will continue to have the highest adult obesity rates. The South also will boast all 10 of the states with the highest rates of Type 2 Diabetes and hypertension.

Jeff Levi, executive director of The Trust for America’s Health said Tuesday that states need to match their efforts to prevent obesity to the severity of the epidemic.

New cases of Type 2 Diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and hypertension will more than double by 2030 and medical costs could increase by about 24 percent in Virginia if the adult-obesity rate continues unabated.

Already, nationwide more than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.

The stakes are even greater in states dealing with a senior boom, such as Virginia. In trying to explain why health care costs and disease rates at times outpaced the increase in obesity rates, Levi pointed to the aging population. As the obese age so to do their health care costs, he said. In addition, the longer an individual is obese, the greater their risk is of obtaining an obesity-related disease and incurring the associated health costs. Estimates show the medical cost of obesity currently ranges from $147 to $210 billion annually.

Virginia’s 65-plus population has increased by 23 percent since 2000 and is on the cusp of a decade’s long population shift wherein the elderly outnumber the young. The obese spend 42 percent more on health care than their healthy counterparts.

Going forward, the adult obesity rate will grow at a slower pace than in the past but it will increase nonetheless. Levi attributes the slow down to multiple factors including awareness, wellness programs, behavioral and policy changes.

“It’s a relatively steady uptick,” Levi said.

Based on data collected by the Centers for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the Foundation learned said the nation can expect see 7.9 million new cases of diabetes, 6.8 million new cases of heart disease and stroke, 500,000 new cases of cancer and a $66 billion increase in health care costs if obesity rates continue to rise as predicted.

Because of a change in the way the behavioral risk survey is calculated, investigators said obesity rates cannot be compared year-to-year but they do provide an accurate indication of where the obesity epidemic is headed. The CDC changed the way it measures data in 2011 so the data would better represent lower-income and racial and ethnic minorities.

Researchers recommend significant policy changes and an overall reduction of the average adult Body Mass Index or BMI by 5 percent. BMI is a calculation of body fat based on an individual’s height and weight. Adults with a BMI above 30 are classified as obese while those with a BMI between 25 and 29 are classified as overweight.

A BMI reduction of 5 percent could save states between 6.5 and 7.8 percent on obesity-related health costs and significantly reduce the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, arthritis and cancer.

Leslie Hoglund, senior health coordinator for the Virginia Department of Health Central Virginia Health District, said the greater-Lynchburg area is making significant gains in its effort to reduce obesity rates. Since the “Live Healthy Lynchburg” campaign launched in March the community logged thousands of miles and lost 12 tons of weight.

And there’s more to come, she said.

Within the next year Lynchburg will roll out a mobile produce market to ensure all city residents have easy access to fresh produce. In January the Lynchburg Community Market will begin accepting SNAP benefits and in the coming months local public school teachers will undergo training on how to incorporate physical activity into their curriculum. City officials await the release of a new children’s book, written by a local physician, designed to inspire children to take a walking tour ofLynchburg.

In addition, Lynchburg is preparing to improve and extend the Blackwater Creek Trail, pushing the trail to the Lynchburg College campus by the spring of 2013. According to the American Heart Association, every $1 spent building biking trails and walking paths can save about $3 in medical expenses and Lynchburg is about to spend more than $90,000 on the latest trail expansion.

Stopping the obesity epidemic is absolutely possible, said Hoglund, particularly in communities willing to have those kinds of conversations.

“Gone are the days of the health fair,” she said. “We have to move toward policies and implement environmental strategies” and make the healthy choice the easy choice.

The health initiatives being worked on now are sustainable and will affect us 20 to 30 generations down the road, Hoglund said. Ideally, the Live Healthy Lynchburg campaign, and all the secondary initiatives it spawned, will drive the local obesity rate down to around 25 percent she said.

“We’re hoping that the impact will be seen in 2030,” Hoglund said.