Wyoming ranks well for child obesity

By Seth Klamann
Casper Star-Tribune
Via Wyoming News Exchange
 
CASPER — Wyoming has the fifth-lowest youth obesity rate in the United States, according to a report by a leading health organization, providing a rare piece of optimistic data about the health of young people in the Equality State. 
According to data from 2016 and 2017, 10.6 percent of Wyoming’s 10- to 17-year-olds were obese. Only New Hampshire, Washington, Colorado and Utah had lower rates, and the national average was 15.8 percent. The data comes from the 2016-17 National Survey of Children’s Health and was released earlier this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of the largest health philanthropies in the country. 
Because the health survey was “significantly redesigned” in recent years, it’s difficult to compare this data to previous years, the foundation said in a preamble to the report. But Wyoming’s rate appears to be an improvement from where the state was at the beginning of 2016, when 12.9 percent of youth were obese. 
While the report focused on youth obesity, it included numbers for adult figures, as well: Nearly 29 percent of older Wyomingites were obese in 2017, the 34th highest rate in the nation, and a 1 point increase from 2016. More than 35 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds here were obese, with a slightly higher rate for men (29.5 percent) than women (28.1 percent). 
Girirdhar Mallya, a senior policy officer for the foundation, said there were a number of explanations for why Wyoming’s rate, while still high, was well below the national average. For one, he noted the mountain west’s “culture around around being outside and being physically active”; whether a child is physically active is a key predictor of whether that kid will be obese or not. 
Secondly, Mallya said, the state has some policies — like requiring healthy eating and physical activity in early education — that have helped drive its rates down. 
Elementary and middle schools similarly have requirements for physical education, though high schools don’t, he said. 
Finally, he noted that Wyoming is largely white, and Hispanic and African-American children tend to have higher rates of obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Racial and ethnic minority children often live in communities where they face challenges in access to affordable, healthy food or safe places to be physically active, which contribute to higher obesity rates.” 
In Wyoming, 27.9 percent of white adults were obese in 2017. By comparison, 28.8 percent of Latino residents were obese, according to the report. No data was available for African-American or Native American Wyomingites. 
Wyoming’s relatively low rate is a rare piece of good news for youth health here. In June, another national study — this time from the Annie E. Casey Foundation — ranked the state 49th for children’s health, a dismal showing driven by the high rate of uninsured kids. A previous report by the same organization found children here, particularly those of color, lagged behind kids from other states. 
Mallya said that while Wyoming did well compared to the rest of the nation, there was still room for improvement. While the state has policies around activity and healthy eating for young children, stronger guidelines could be added. High school kids could be required to take PE, as well, a policy that 42 other states and Washington, D.C. have enacted. 
Nearly 17 percent of children in the state are “food insecure” — essentially lacking reliable access to healthy, affordable food — as is 12.3 percent of the overall population, according to the report. Wyoming is also one of 13 states that doesn’t have “healthy food financing funding.” According to the report, the “federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) has brought grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities across America.” 
Nationally, the communities that have seen the most improvement have focused on long-term strategies that bring together professionals from various fields — transportation, health care, public health and private sector leaders. The strategies those communities roll out can be measured, Mallya explained, so leaders can assess how the work is progressing. 
He said that if a person is obese as a child, he or she is more likely to be obese as an adult, too, and then can face higher likelihoods of having heart disease, diabetes and stroke. 
But that’s not to say overweight children are doomed; far from it, Mallya said. 
“I think the first thing to keep in mind, particularly for kids, they are continuing to develop and grow,” he said. “Just because a child is obese today doesn’t mean that he or she is going to be obese in a year or two. At the individual level, we like to remind children and parents and families that they can make changes.”