The good news is that Kansas still has a slightly better than average health ranking. The bad news is that our ranking dropped faster than any other state in the nation.
The annual America’s Health Rankings conducted by the United Health Foundation placed Kansas as the 23rd heathiest state in the nation, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Last year, we were 16th. The drop in ranking was due in part to an increase in smokers, from 17.8 percent of the population to 20 percent; an increase in obese Kansans, from 23.9 percent to 25.9 percent; and an increase in the rate of uninsured, from 10.3 percent to 12.3 percent. Kansas also has low childhood immunization rate and a growing number of children born into poverty, according to the study.
Implementing some of the reforms recommended by the Kansas Health Policy Authority would help reverse this downward trend.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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26 Comments
Alto there is not enough info.A growing population and a delayed reaction of economics (micro and mega) might have something to do with the increase.
Is anyone else disturbed or sickened by the percentage of obese people in Kansas?
Am I the only one that wants to walk up to a parent of a fat kid and slap them?
Nah, Just give the parents your name card, saying that you’re going to send the kid to the USMC boot camp to make him a lean, mean, fighting machine! :)
PROHIBITING building the proposed two new coal-fired electric power plants out west of Garden City would be a big help in preserving the health of Kansas citizens.
And prohibiting the proposed coal fired electric power plants would also extend the use of the Ogallala aquifer for additional years so Kansans can continue to get a clean cold drink of water and take a hot shower with clean water … rather than from recycled, regurgitated sewage effluent from surface waterways.
There are many combinatorial factors leading to obesity.
Genetics: Some people’s metabolism is more “efficient” in turning food into fat. Historically, this was beneficial for people living in northern regions in which their body-fat stores got them through the winter after food supplies ran short. Kansas has a lot of Germano-Slavic people for whom efficient fat production was at one time a very good survival trait.
So, people would put on fat in the summer and fall, then burn it off in winter and early spring. (Just like bears.) Now, with year-round abundant food supplies, the burn-off phase has been lost.
Harsh climatic conditions for exercise in Kansas: Kansas is cold and windy (generating low to very low wind-chill factors) for most days from late November through early April. Then in summer it’s too hot to go outside. I grew up in California. There were few winter days in which we didn’t take recess outside. We also had a one-hour lunch period, and exercise-play was the norm. You could then spend all day outside in summer.
This isn’t feasible in Kansas. Schools could theoretically build large indoor-exercise facilities, but they don’t. Maybe we should pay for their construction. Who’s willing to pay more taxes for this?
The loss of neighborhood schools: All non-farm kids used to walk or ride bikes to school, as did farm kids as well before WWII. Anti-segregation Supreme Court rulings resulted in busing schemes that had unintended negative consequences. The drastic reduction in daily commuting exercise was not even considered.
TV, computers and videogames: an obvious enticement to sit around.
Sedentary jobs of the late industrial, early postindustrial eras have reduced work-day exercise for millions of people. A few enlightened companies provide recreational exercise facilities and encourage workers to use them. But most do not.
A health-insurance system that pays highly for health-damage services, but not for preventive care. After a heart attack or stroke, you can get exercise-therapy. How about paying for it BEFORE this happens?
Skewed farm-subsidies that pay for farmers to grow high-starch, low-vitamin commodity grains. (Notably, the fiber and protein of ancient grains have largely been genetically bred out to produce more starch.) A lot of corn starch is also chemically converted to fructose (corn syrup). Starch is just a polymer chain of sugar molecules. A great quick-energy source. In the absence of sufficient exercise, starch and fructose are obesity and diabetes generators.
The Upper Midwest food processing industry does a great job of making obesity-promoting starchy foods tasty.
Then the grocery-sellers issue coupons and have reduced-price specials on this processed obesity-generating stuff. When was the last time you saw a coupon for apples, oranges, spinach or broccoli? Dillon’s sells a brand of intact-husk rice (a Scandinavian name, I can’t remember). It’s never “on sale”. But Uncle Ben’s and Rice-A-Roni fiber-free pure-starch rice products are, all the time.
This is not an exhaustive list, but we have a lot obesity and diabetes promoting factors at work here.
Nathan you’re so judgemental. Perhaps if there was less poverty, we’d have fewer problems with health (thank you republicans). But no, you don’t see that, you just blame blame blame everyone else.
Besides, you’re not even a parent, so get off your holier than thou kick.
Well I don’t agree with the ranking… I believe Kansas is a better state then people give us credit!
Studies show that child obesity can be caused by lack of sleep.
Parents who let their kids stay up watching late night TV hurt the kids, when they have to go to school the next day, but they also play havoc with the hormones that control weight, diet and appetite.
Poor parenting is often the cause of childhood obesity:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0135182120071105
However,
Overweight people are LESS likely to get several diseases:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/health/07fat.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1194438040-WQ8KzBIizxq%20luYBavokrw&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
If you want to get us healthy, just keep increasing the tax on smokes until no one can afford them, and then tax revenue declines, and you end up increasing taxes on the rest of us.
Like Hillary’s proposal to fund healthcare with cigarette taxes.
It worked for me. Everytime I pulled another smoke from the pack and lit up – I saw Hillary Clinton’s face.
I have not had a cigarette in four months. (true story, of course Chantix helped)
Alot of studies use the BMI to determine if someone is overweight. The BMI index has it’s flaws because it doesn’t consider that muscle weighs more then fat. The BMI just looks at your height and weight.
No, I am not overweight (is probaly what you are thinking). But according to the BMI, my husband would be overweight (which he is not) because he has alot of muscle compared to his height.
“Am I the only one that wants to walk up to a parent of a fat kid and slap them?”
Nope; this ‘leftie’ is right there with you.
I think a lot of paretns are overly fearful of their kids getting hurt playing outside. I have to admit that I shudder sometimes when I see my grandkids on their trampolene or climbing up high. However they seem to ‘bounce’ well and are almost skinny.
It’s unfair though – they eat what I eat and are skinny. I’m not …
A comment about BMI: recent things I have read suggest that carrying SOME extra weight is not necessarily a problem. However, crossing that ‘magic line’ to obese is.
Paul – agree with you a lot there too.
we’d have fewer problems with health (thank you republicans). But no, you don’t see that, you just blame blame blame everyone else.Posted by: political_mom
When I look at the beer bellies at Dillions or the size 50 suits in Congress – I don’t see any difference between party lines.
Good grief woman! Cry a little louder. You want some cheese to go with that wine:
“It’s the nasty republican’s fault we are all FAT!!!”
I swear sometimes, I don’t know why I bother blogging here.
AW, don’t you know that obesity is a disease!
50% of America has this disease! It’s a national crisis!
We need HillaryCare! soon to solve this problem.
And more food stamps.
So two factors in deciding if you are ‘unhealthy’ are:
Your are poorYou don’t have health insurance
Sounds more like a progressive think tank than a group of researchers.
And two main factors contribute to the two leading causes of death and much of the health care costs in America:
ObesityLack of Exercise
Who’s fault is that? Government?
Pretty hard to get in shape when you’re working 60 hours a week at two jobs . . .
Fortunately, I have a flexible job that lets me work out. Ran four miles this AM already.
But other people don’t . . .
This reminds me of a Tshirt I saw last night.
“This isn’t a beer belly. It is a protective covering for my rock hard abs”
Having spent last week in a class for diabetics I can say that healthy eating and exercise need to be stressed more. My grandkids tell me they are bringing back Physical Education in middle school. When did it go away?
We are outlawing ‘Red Rover’ and dodge ball in grade school. WHy?
My granddaughter was getting a little chunky. Her parents bought her a brand new bicycle for her 7th birthday and she has slimmed down already. Doesn’t want to stay in the house at all.
We know the answer – It’s just doing it that gets dicy.
The great thing about the rich Writers Strike in Hollywood is we can all go out for more walks.
There really isn’t much worth watching on the television these days anyway. Spend most of my time on the History, PBS, Nature, and news anyway.
Do us all good to get off the couch and do a little moving around.
Hope they stay gone for a long, long, time.
Who cares, I didn’t know states were competing against eachother.
Plus, we have new people moving to Kansas all the time, plus illegal immigrants. Plus the mid-west is full of lazy people to begin with. Eating fast food in your truck during lunch hour is what 5 out of every 10 Wichitans do every day.
I’m sure they used BMI to determine if someone is obese. As a counter example – by BMI I’m obese. By body fat I’m quite healthy.
Oh, and why do you need indoor recess facilities? Only someone from California (or Florida I guess) could come up with that. OMG!!!! It snows here!!!
Started walking 5-6 miles every day and doing yoga again…I don’t think I’ve lost weight (I refuse to weigh myself) but my clothes are getting loose and I feel 100% better..I know I have more energy for sure.Now, if I could only give up the fatty fried foods, sugar, and caffeine!
I read today that 25 lbs. overweight is actually more healthy than being at the ideal weight.
Econ interesting link here’s the appropriate exerpt:
“Linking, for the first time, causes of death to specific weights, they report that overweight people have a lower death rate because they are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infections and lung disease.
And that lower risk is not counteracted by increased risks of dying from any other disease, including cancer, diabetes or heart disease.”
Posted by: ProudMan | November 07, 2007 at 11:41 AM
Don’t know that it would be a progressive think tank — those are 2 of many factors that will make some one unhealthy – not the only ones and may not be a factor in all or many
Econ interesting link here’s the appropriate exerpt:
“Linking, for the first time, causes of death to specific weights, they report that overweight people have a lower death rate because they are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infections and lung disease.
And that lower risk is not counteracted by increased risks of dying from any other disease, including cancer, diabetes or heart disease.”
sorry for the double post