A Comparative Analysis of Factors Relative to Obesity for Mississippi vs Colorado

Background: Mississippi ranked highest in obesity with a prevalence rate of 34.4% while Colorado had the least rate of 18.6% in 2009. This study was to determine if risk factors relative to obesity for Mississippi were same for Colorado.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses of BRFSS 2009 data were conducted. The bivariate analysis and multiple logistic regressions were used to compare risk factor of obesity.

Results: There is a correlation between residents of Mississippi or Colorado with education, annual household income, employment status, age, race, gender, overall physical activity, and fruit and vegetable servings per day (p<0.0001). Race, sex, age and overall physical activity are predictors for overweight/obesity status in Mississippi. In Colorado, sex, physical activity, age, education, fruit and vegetable and annual household income are predictors of being overweight/obese. In Mississippi, African Americans were 2.3 times more likely to be overweight/obese compared to white people. In Colorado, people with annual household income <$15,000 were less likely to be overweight/obese compared to people with annual household income > $50,000. People with lower education were less likely to be overweight /obese. Women were least likely to be overweight/obese in both States with OR=0.519 in Mississippi and OR= 0.433 in Colorado.

Conclusion: Risk factors contributed to obesity are different in Mississippi and Colorado. Race is a significant risk factor of obesity in Mississippi, but not in Colorado. Education and income are predictors of obesity in Colorado, but in an unexpected direction. Each State should design different prevention programs to address obesity problems.