How Obese Is Worcester?

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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Monica White, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Are belts getting tighter in Worcester? The numbers say so. Obesity levels are up in Worcester, and are slightly higher than the national average, according to Gallup-Healthways, a prominent source of well-being data across the country. Gallup recently released detailed findings from its 2012 Well-Being Index, which averages surveys in the six sub-indexes of Life Evaluation, Physical Health, Emotional Health, Healthy Behavior, Work Environment, and Basic Access.

Gallup-Healthways interviewed thousands upon thousands of US adults, whose responses informed a score for each of the six sub-indexes as well as an overal well-being composite score. Looking to use the data to set goals toward improving health, increasing productivity, and lowering healthcare costs, the survey tracks US obesity levels by calculating Body Mass Index (BMI) scores. BMI scores of 30 or higher are considered obese.

Gallup-Healthways reports a 26.8 percent obesity rate in Worcester, up from 24.2 percent in 2011 but only slightly higher than the national average, which is 26.2 percent. The ten Metropolitan Statistical Areas (as defined by the US Census Bureau) with the lowest obesity rates averaged 16.6 percent, with Boulder, CO, Charlottesville, VA, and Bellingham, WA rounding out the top three. The eleven metro areas with the highest obesity rates averaged 34.1%, with McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX, Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, and Little Rock-North/Little Rock-Conway, AR falling into the bottom spots.

The 26.2 percent national obesity rate reflects virtually no change from WBI findings in 2011, and out of the 189 metro areas surveyed for the 2012 WBI, 102 had obesity rates lower than the national average.

Worcester's overall and six sub-index rankings (found here) ranged from average to poor, coming in 138th overall in the ranking of 189 Metropolitan Statistical Areas. All but one of its seven rankings place in the bottom three quintiles, although Massachusetts' placed in the first quintile when ranked with other states, coming in 10th overall.

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