Mississippi has higher Child Obesity Rate

The childhood obesity epidemic is hitting some states much harder than others, threatening to further worsen geographic disparities in health, new research shows. Adults in the southeastern US-the so-called "Stroke Belt"-are known to be fatter and sicker than Americans living elsewhere. And at least in terms of overweight and obesity, the same pattern holds for kids, Dr. Gopal K. Singh of the US Health Resources and Services Administration in Rockville, Maryland, and his colleagues found.

Singh and his team compared state-by-state changes in rates of overweight and obesity between 2003 and 2007, using data from the National Survey of Children's Health. They report their findings in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.