The study is the first to use body mass index, or BMI,
classification based on researcher-measured height and weight to
compare rates of obesity in rural and urban adults. Previous
studies relied on participants’ self-reports of height and
weight, which led to too-low estimates of obesity, the
researchers say. “I was surprised by the magnitude of the rural-
urban difference — it was larger than expected and much larger
than previously estimated,” said senior author Michael G. Perri,
Ph.D., a professor and dean of the UF College of Public Health
and Health Professions. The findings appear in the fall issue of
the Journal of Rural Health, published by the National Rural
Health Association. Nearly 60 million people, or 19 percent of
the population, live in rural areas, according to the 2010 U.S.
Census. Perri and fellow investigators Christie Befort, Ph.D.,
and Niaman Nazir, M.D., both of the University of Kansas Medical
Center, analyzed data from the 2005-2008 National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey con