U.S. Obesity Trends (Maps/Infographics) | Hacker News Reader

U.S. Obesity Trends (Maps/Infographics)

cdc.gov

29 pointscwan27 comments

An unintentionally good example of why choosing colors for choropleth maps can be tricky in terms of making sure the data you are conveying matches visual perception. UT, for example stands out (in later years), even though it has less obesity than states around it. In this case, a single hue changing from light to dark would be more effective.

Choropleth maps are an interesting problem because they can be unintentionally quite misleading. In particular, the modifiable areal unit problem is a frequent issue with US maps of population-related data. This is due to the use county boundaries and since counties vary drastically by both size and population, values averaged over a county are sometimes almost meaningless (the classic example is San Bernadino County in CA).

You mean Colorado, not Utah, right? Colorado appears to stand along in the west side of the country starting in 2005. In 2004 and 2005, Utah and Colorado are both the dark blue indicating 15%-19%. In general, Colorado seems to lag behind the indicated measurements of the states around it.

I'd like to see this displayed alongside a map showing the consumption levels of high fructose corn syrup.

Amen to that! And add some data regarding the dates of regulatory policy changes involving the High Fructose Corn Syrup.

A question that these statistics raise: both obesity and the number of hispanics have been increasing. Hispanics are more obese than average.

Is it possible that the increase in obesity is partially/completely explained by demographics?

All demographics had an increase in obesity, but it is increasing faster in black and hispanic populations (at least for male children):

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/prevalence.html

I should add that I find something subtly unpleasant about the phrasing of your question, but I'm having trouble articulating it.

I guess it's easy to assume that. To my Hispanic eyes it's different though. Somewhat recently I read that Mexico was now No.2 in obesity. Behind the US (No.1). But this is a recent development, even newer that the US's obesity I believe, and it came about starting in the 90's, when Mexico opened up with the North American Free Trade Agreement and finally (I still consider it a good thing, for Mexico at least) allowed freer importing, and exporting of among other things, fast-food american chains. We gave up the torta for the burger.

But another interesting observation is that here in the US, the trend not only coincides with the "Low-fat" assault (see Taubes' GCBC), it also does with the embargo imposed on Mexican cane sugar in the late 70's, and the subsequent adoption of High-fructose corn syrup as the sweetener of choice for Americans. And then you see some longing for "mexican coca-cola".

In short, I believe that Hispanic obesity has been growing alongside everyone else's here, not causing it. Back in the day there were only the "fat gringos".

I am not assuming, I am asking.

The right way to answer the question, I think, would be to look at obesity rates restricted to whites/Hispanics, or alternatively to calculate obesity rates pretending Hispanics exist in the us at their 1960 proportions.

Affluence and obesity tend to be inversely related in modern US culture. Affluence and Hispanic origin likewise, I suppose; though I do remember that when the big rush of immigration began in the mid-1980s that poor Hispanics in the cities tended to be quite healthy compared to others of similar income, probably because of farm or village eating habits carrying over.

"Hispanics are more obese than average."

Is that really true? The areas of the country that I most often associate Latino Hispanic immigrants seem to have the lowest obesity rates on this map.

You could scroll down to where they break it out by ethnicity. :)

You can pretty much pick out where the reservations are in the western US on the county map of combined obesity and diabetes. The big one in NM/AZ is the main Navajo reservation.

Native American tend to have some of the worst health stats in the US (although better in some categories).

So the stereotype of the granola-eating outdoorsy Coloradian must be true...

hangs head ... check, check, and check.

Although I prefer gorp (good old raisins and peanuts). ;)

Begs for ClearMaps http://www.sunlightlabs.com/blog/2010/clearmaps-mapping-fram...

Interesting data and depressing when you think of the health care costs we'll be seeing as a nation as our population ages.

I have one quibble with the presentation; white is represented as "no data", but perception wise, it makes it look like those states had 0 percent obesity rates.

The county level maps look suspect, as if some normalization or bias at the state level were happening. Do people really get more obese when you cross the state line from Illinois to Missouri?

Illinois and Missouri border states other than each other. And the population is not concentrated on the borders, let alone a single one.

This why we need a tax on unhealthy, processed foods and drinks and subsidies on healthy foods. The Dollar Menu should be the Five Dollar Menu and Subway should have the Two Dollar Footlong.

Wow, that's scary. The epidemic just exploded within our lifetimes, and it started with the poor in states like Mississippi and Alabama and spread outward to middle-class America.

It would be nice if links to the data used for the visualizations was available. It would be interesting to play with.

Shazam: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/index.html

That's still not the raw data. I'd probably have to pick thru the papers and such before I'd have the full dataset.

read Good Calories, Bad Calories for a well researched book on why this is (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Scienc...)

From the Amazon page's editorial reviews, by Publishers Weekly:

Taubes says that the current U.S. obesity epidemic actually consists of a very small increase in the average body mass index.

Interesting, considering the data in the top link implies otherwise. (I haven't read the book, can't comment on the editorial review's statement's accuracy)

It's interesting to see the seemingly strong correlation between the highest obesity rates and the highest diabetes rates. I would have guessed, sure, but this looks like fairly strong evidence there's a correlation

When I moved to Georgia, I was surprised by how many dialysis clinics there are. Like, half the strip malls in my current town have one.

Obesity is the main risk factor for adult-onset diabetes; diabetes and high blood pressure are the main risk factors for chronic kidney disease, and when your kidneys finally fail (whether it's under the strain of sweet tea and biscuits & gravy, or Pepsi and Big Macs), you need dialysis.

It's getting so bad now that we're seeing adult-onset diabetes, the diet-inflicted kind, appearing in kids -- not to be confused with juvenile-onset diabetes, the kind that's normally genetic.

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