West Virginia had the highest prevalence of adult diabetes in 2012, and Alaska had the lowest rate, the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported.
In West Virginia, 13.0% of adults had diabetes last year, compared with 7.0% for Alaska, according to "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2013."
Nine of the 10 states with the highest diabetes rates were in the South, with Mississippi (12.5%), Alabama (12.2%), Louisiana (12.2%), and Tennessee (12.0%) in the top five. In sixth place at 11.6%, Ohio was the only state in the top ten outside the South, the report said.
After Alaska, the four states with the lowest rates were Montana (7.2%), Utah (7.2%), Vermont (7.2%), and Minnesota (7.3%).
The diabetes data for the report came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System.
