Obesity-related risks don’t seem to scare too many people in the US if considering the findings of the newest report focusing on this issue. Despite national campaigns warning about the risks of carrying too much weight, the report found that obesity rates have worsened in the United States.

“Despite widespread acknowledgement that obesity is endangering the health of millions of Americans, the country is still failing to respond clearly or comprehensively," Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said during a press conference.

The study carried by the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was released on Tuesday under the title “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2008.”

According to the study, obesity rates rose in 37 states in 2007 while no state showed any decline in this sense. Mississippi is the most obese state with 31.7 percent of adults qualifying as obese, while Colorado is the slimmest state with only 18.4 percent of the adult population classified as obese. In fact, Colorado is the only state in which the adult obesity rate is less than 20 percent.

“In 1991, no state had an obesity rate of more than 20 percent. It's shocking, the rate of this increase… Our nation is in a public health epidemic that continues undiminished,” said Dr. James Marks, senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, during the same press conference.

The study found that more than 25 percent of adults are obese in 28 states up from 19 states in 2006. Most of the states with highest obesity appear to be located in the South, while Northeastern and Western states have the lowest obesity rates.

Top five fattest states was rounded by West Virginia (30.6 percent), Alabama (30.1), Louisiana (29.5) and South Carolina (29.2). At the other pole, Colorado was followed by Hawaii (20.7), Connecticut (20.8), Massachusetts (20.9) and Vermont (21.1).

The figures are far from being optimistic, in fact are worse than expected, considering the fact that the US aims to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults to less than 15 percent and among children to less than 5 percent by the year 2010.

Given the current situation, the authors of the report estimate that the percentage of adults who are either overweight or obese will reach 75 percent of Americans by 2015, which is not healthy at all. Previous studies have related obesity to type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, cancer, osteoarthritis, gall bladder disease, liver disease and pregnancy complications. In fact, the report shows that states in the South have an increased number of people suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure.

The study’s authors say that high rates of obesity also mean high health care costs, “lowering productivity” and impairing the US’s economy.

“We must work together, governments, schools, and communities, to improve nutrition and increase physical activity for all ages. We must ensure that strong policies are implemented and enforced in every state, not only to help reverse existing obesity rates, but to prevent obesity among our nation's children and generations to come,” the authors concluded.