From 2010 to 2012 West Virginia was ranked the most obese state in the country according to Gallup’s Well Being State of the States report.
This year Mississippi bumped West Virginia out of the bottom.
The report says Mississippi’s obesity rate is 35 point four percent, while West Virginia’s is 34.4. The national rate is 27.1 percent, which is 1.6 percentage points higher than the year before.
Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky have been listed among the 10 states with the highest obesity rates in the nation since 2008.
The report is based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 2 – Dec. 29, 2013 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well -Being Index.
It says people living in the 10 most obese states have higher rates of chronic disease like high cholesterol, diabetes, heart conditions and cancer.