Rebecca sends in this animated graph and writes, “all the white states inititally are a bit deceptive, but even so, it’s pretty striking, and the animation is very effective.” I think I’d prefer a time series of the national average, along with a color-coded animated map showing each state relative to the national average in each year.
This is a really fascinating animated graph but I wonder: is obesity really increasing at such a rapid rate or are the statistics being collected on obesity improving? Can this disturbing trend, at least in part, possibly be an artifact of a greater focus on health?
Jason: I don't think there's much doubt that the trend is real. The data for the animated chart come from telephone surveys, but the results are not substantially different from those of studies such as NHANES which actually measure the height and weight of a large number of subjects.
A number of possibilities have been suggested, but to my knowledge no one has come up with a really definitive cause for the increase in obesity.