HELENA - Obesity among both the young and the old is reaching epidemic proportions in Montana, a new state study to be unveiled later this month shows.
And now the state health department has fewer dollars to spend on the problem since the National Centers for Disease Control axed Montana's obesity prevention program this summer, state officials said Friday.
9 percent in 1990 to 19 percent in 2001. The number of overweight youths is also on the rise, although statistics are not available.
"It looks like an epidemic," said Jason Swant, public health education specialist in the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. "It definitely gets the attention when you have those kinds of changes in such a short period of time."
While the increasing number of overweight residents is alarming state health officials, Montana is following a national trend. The CDC reports that obesity in the United States has also risen at an epidemic rate during the past 20 years. The percentage of overweight adults in the United States. has increased an average of 2 percent annually since 1980, for a total of 35 percent in 1999, the CDC reports.
The CDC defines overweight as an increased weight to height ratio. In the same adult population, obesity has nearly doubled from approximately 15 percent in 1980 to an estimated 27 percent in 1999.
CDC defines obesity as an excessively high amount of body fat. One of the national health objectives for the year 2010 is to reduce the prevalence of obesity among adults to less than
15 percent, the CDC reports, but research indicates that the situation is worsening rather than improving.
Montana's health department aims to reverse that trend here, even though the CDC ended Montana's $300,000 per year obesity prevention program at the end of June.
Recently, the state health department's chronic disease prevention and health promotion section placed obesity prevention at the top of its priority list.
"I wouldn't say (the cut) has hampered our efforts at all," Swant said. "But of course, when there's an operating budget, it's easier. Now we've spread our concern across the chronic disease programs to ensure that it's moving forward."
The state aims to develop stronger physical education programs in schools that offer them, develop physical education programs in schools that don't as well as increase the nutritional value of school lunches.
As for decreasing obesity in adults, the state has more of an uphill battle, Swant said.
"It's really hard to be that active agent that causes behavior change for adults," he said. But the state will focus on increasing community based obesity prevention programs for adults, he added.
One of the main factors contributing to obesity among Montanans is lack of leisure time, Swant said. With many state residents working two jobs to make ends meet, they have less - or no - time for recreation and physical activity, he added.
Larger food portion sizes, an increase in the amount of high calorie food available as well as consumerism also contribute to the state's obesity problem, Swant said.
"Before there were Twinkies, we didn't eat them," Swant said. "Now we like that and we want them."
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