Providence Ranked the Fattest City in New England
GoLocalProv News Team
Providence Ranked the Fattest City in New England
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas is ranked as the fattest city in America followed by the Shreveport-Bossier City, LA and Jackson, MS third.
When you come up north, Providence is ranked 42nd in the country and 39th overall for obesity.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Americans are the fattest people in the world, not just stereotypically but statistically too. In fact, almost 40% of the U.S. population aged 15 and older is obese. But such a finding should come as no surprise, considering the huge availability of fast-food and increasingly cheaper grocery items that have negatively altered our diets,” reports WalletHub who published the report.
“Unfortunately, the extra pounds have inflated the costs of obesity-related medical treatment to between $147 billion and $210 billion a year and annual productivity losses due to work absenteeism to around $4.3 billion,” added the report.
This new report is not inconsistent with a report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that found that, that the adult obesity rate in Rhode Island increased by more than 3 percent from 2016 to 2017.
Methodology
In order to determine the fattest cities in America, WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across three key dimensions: 1) Obesity & Overweight, 2) Health Consequences and 3) Food & Fitness.
We evaluated those dimensions using 19 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the “fattest.” Data for metrics marked with an asterisk (*) were available only at the state level.
We then determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.
Obesity & Overweight – Total Points: 60
Share of Overweight Adults: Full Weight (~13.33 Points)
Share of Obese Adults: Full Weight (~13.33 Points)
Share of Overweight Teenagers: Half* Weight (~6.67 Points)
Note: “Teenagers” includes 9th through 12th grade students.
Share of Obese Teenagers: Half* Weight (~6.67 Points)
Note: “Teenagers” includes 9th through 12th grade students.
Share of Overweight Children: Half* Weight (~6.67 Points)
Note: “Children” includes persons aged 10 to 17.
Share of Obese Children: Half* Weight (~6.67 Points)
Note: “Children” includes persons aged 10 to 17.
Projected Obesity Rates by 2030: Half* Weight (~6.67 Points)
Health Consequences – Total Points: 25
Share of Adults with High Cholesterol: Full Weight (~5.56 Points)
Share of Diabetic Adults: Full Weight (~5.56 Points)
Share of Adults with High Blood Pressure: Full Weight (~5.56 Points)
Heart-Disease Rate: Full Weight (~5.56 Points)
Obesity-Related Death Rate: Half* Weight (~2.78 Points)
Food & Fitness – Total Points: 15
Share of Adults with Low Fruit/Vegetable Consumption: Full Weight (~1.50 Points)
Note: This metric refers to the share of adults who consume fruit and vegetables less than one time per day.
Share of Residents Who Say They Eat Healthy: Full Weight (~1.50 Points)
Limited Access to Healthy Food: Full Weight (~1.50 Points)
Note: This metric measures the share of urban-area residents who earn a low income and live more than 1 mile from a grocery store or supermarket.
Share of Physically Inactive Adults: Full Weight (~1.50 Points)
City Friendliness toward an Active Lifestyle: Quadruple Weight (~6.00 Points)
Note: This metric is based on data from WalletHub’s Best & Worst Cities for an Active Lifestyleranking.
Access to Parks & Recreational Facilities: Full Weight (~1.50 Points)
Note: This metric measures the share of individuals who live reasonably close to a location for physical activity - parks or recreational facilities.
Number of Health Educators and Community Health Workers per Capita: Full Weight (~1.50 Points)
Note: Health educators teach people about behaviors that promote wellness. They develop and implement strategies to improve the health of individuals and communities.