Estimating Prevalence of Overweight or Obese Children and Adolescents in Small Geographic Areas Using Publicly Available Data
ORIGINAL RESEARCH — Volume 12 — March 12, 2015
The northern area of Atlanta has lower prevalence estimates for children and adolescents who are overweight or obese, whereas some areas of the eastern, western, and southern parts of the city have higher prevalence estimates. There is also a band of high prevalence running southwest to northeast across the middle of the state.
Figure 1. Prevalence estimates of a high body mass index among children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 in census tracts in Georgia in 2010. The gray areas indicate areas with no population (eg, airports, parks).
| County | County No. | Estimated Prevalence of High Body Mass Index, % | Estimated Number of Children with High Body Mass Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gwinnett | 13135 | 33.1 | 210,789 |
| Fulton | 13121 | 33.4 | 194,766 |
| Cobb | 13067 | 32.9 | 157,838 |
| Dekalb | 13089 | 34.6 | 144,462 |
| Clayton | 13063 | 35.9 | 66,450 |
| Henry | 13151 | 33.6 | 54,486 |
| Chatham | 13051 | 34.5 | 52,468 |
| Cherokee | 13057 | 31.7 | 53,061 |
| Hall | 13139 | 35.3 | 44,691 |
| Richmond | 13245 | 35.5 | 43,417 |
| Muscogee | 13215 | 34.9 | 42,900 |
| Forsyth | 13117 | 30.5 | 48,578 |
| Paulding | 13223 | 32.8 | 38,912 |
| Bibb | 13021 | 35.8 | 35,524 |
| Douglas | 13097 | 34.3 | 33,807 |
| Houston | 13153 | 33.7 | 33,529 |
| Coweta | 13077 | 33.0 | 31,206 |
| Columbia | 13073 | 32.2 | 30,681 |
| Whitfield | 13313 | 36.7 | 26,179 |
| Newton | 13217 | 34.4 | 26,057 |
| Fayette | 13113 | 32.6 | 26,414 |
| Carroll | 13045 | 34.0 | 25,047 |
| Bartow | 13015 | 34.1 | 24,150 |
| Lowndes | 13185 | 34.4 | 23,613 |
| Dougherty | 13095 | 36.4 | 21,498 |
| Floyd | 13115 | 34.8 | 21,004 |
| Rockdale | 13247 | 35.1 | 20,669 |
| Walton | 13297 | 33.5 | 20,417 |
| Clarke | 13059 | 35.0 | 17,569 |
| Glynn | 13127 | 34.2 | 17,119 |
| Barrow | 13013 | 33.0 | 17,340 |
| Liberty | 13179 | 33.8 | 16,466 |
| Troup | 13285 | 34.8 | 15,975 |
| Spalding | 13255 | 35.3 | 14,403 |
| Walker | 13295 | 33.7 | 14,607 |
| Jackson | 13157 | 33.4 | 14,410 |
| Catoosa | 13047 | 32.6 | 14,422 |
| Gordon | 13129 | 34.9 | 13,281 |
| Effingham | 13103 | 33.3 | 13,551 |
| Bulloch | 13031 | 33.8 | 12,779 |
Figure 2. The prevalence of high body mass index (BMI) in the 25% of counties (n = 39) in Georgia with the greatest estimated number of children and adolescents with high BMI. Of all children and adolescents with high BMI in Georgia, 77% reside in these 39 counties. These counties are strongly correlated with population centers. Gray areas indicate the other 75% of counties.
| County | Minimum | 25th Percentile | Median | 75th Percentile | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clarke | 25.8 | 32.6 | 34.0 | 37.1 | 41.7 |
| Fulton | 26.3 | 30.6 | 34.7 | 37.0 | 40.4 |
| Dekalb | 26.9 | 31.3 | 35.1 | 36.3 | 39.9 |
| Muscogee | 28.9 | 32.9 | 35.5 | 37.1 | 40.4 |
| Richmond | 29.8 | 34.3 | 35.9 | 36.8 | 40.0 |
| Bibb | 30.8 | 33.8 | 36.3 | 38.1 | 41.0 |
| Chatham | 29.5 | 32.8 | 34.9 | 37.4 | 39.5 |
| Gwinnett | 28.7 | 31.8 | 33.3 | 34.6 | 38.3 |
| Liberty | 29.3 | 33.3 | 34.2 | 34.7 | 38.9 |
| Cobb | 28.6 | 30.7 | 32.2 | 34.4 | 37.9 |
| Houston | 28.7 | 32.4 | 34.1 | 35.0 | 37.6 |
| Hall | 31.5 | 33.3 | 34.3 | 36.6 | 40.0 |
| Whitfield | 33.2 | 34.4 | 35.6 | 38.4 | 41.0 |
| Lowndes | 30.6 | 32.6 | 33.9 | 35.9 | 38.4 |
| Spalding | 31.9 | 33.9 | 35.0 | 36.3 | 39.4 |
| Greene | 32.6 | 35.9 | 36.5 | 37.8 | 39.9 |
| Dougherty | 32.6 | 34.6 | 36.5 | 37.5 | 39.7 |
| Forsyth | 27.6 | 29.3 | 31.3 | 32.3 | 34.5 |
| Glynn | 30.3 | 32.1 | 33.5 | 36.0 | 37.1 |
| Laurens | 33.5 | 33.8 | 35.4 | 36.3 | 39.8 |
| Coweta | 29.7 | 32.2 | 32.5 | 33.2 | 35.8 |
| Floyd | 31.9 | 33.5 | 34.2 | 37.0 | 38.0 |
| Ware | 32.6 | 34.2 | 34.9 | 36.2 | 38.5 |
| Chattahoochee | 28.6 | 29.3 | 31.1 | 33.0 | 34.4 |
| Carroll | 32.5 | 33.5 | 34.2 | 34.6 | 38.1 |
| Walton | 30.9 | 32.5 | 33.0 | 33.7 | 36.3 |
| Troup | 32.1 | 33.5 | 34.6 | 36.2 | 37.4 |
| Habersham | 32.3 | 32.9 | 34.1 | 35.0 | 37.5 |
| Camden | 29.4 | 31.7 | 32.8 | 33.6 | 34.5 |
| Rockdale | 33.5 | 33.9 | 34.6 | 36.0 | 38.6 |
| Decatur | 34.1 | 35.3 | 36.7 | 37.2 | 39.1 |
| Bulloch | 32.8 | 33.1 | 34.4 | 35.2 | 37.7 |
| Tift | 33.2 | 33.9 | 35.6 | 36.7 | 38.0 |
| Cherokee | 29.8 | 30.8 | 32.1 | 32.8 | 34.4 |
| Peach | 33.3 | 34.7 | 36.9 | 37.6 | 37.9 |
| Jackson | 30.8 | 32.5 | 33.5 | 34.0 | 35.3 |
| Putnam | 33.2 | 34.4 | 34.8 | 37.1 | 37.7 |
| Fayette | 30.4 | 31.6 | 32.3 | 33.7 | 34.8 |
| Baldwin | 34.1 | 35.1 | 36.1 | 37.9 | 38.5 |
| Columbia | 30.3 | 31.1 | 32.5 | 33.1 | 34.6 |
| McDuffie | 33.9 | 35.6 | 36.0 | 36.6 | 37.8 |
| Bryan | 30.6 | 31.4 | 32.1 | 33.1 | 34.6 |
| Coffee | 34.2 | 35.3 | 35.4 | 35.8 | 38.1 |
| Walker | 30.9 | 33.3 | 33.9 | 34.5 | 34.9 |
| Lee | 31.6 | 32.9 | 33.5 | 33.7 | 35.5 |
| Clayton | 33.8 | 35.2 | 35.9 | 36.5 | 37.7 |
| Irwin | 32.7 | 33.7 | 34.6 | 35.6 | 36.6 |
| Mitchell | 35.8 | 36.1 | 37.0 | 37.1 | 39.6 |
| Paulding | 30.6 | 32.4 | 33.0 | 33.4 | 34.4 |
| Tattnall | 34.7 | 35.7 | 35.8 | 36.2 | 38.4 |
Supplementary Figure. Prevalence-estimate ranges across census tracts for the 50 counties in Georgia with the largest ranges. The vertical line in the middle of each box indicates the median; the left and right borders of the box represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively; the right and left whiskers mark the minimum and maximum, respectively; the dots represent outliers as determined by 1.5 times the difference between the 25th and 75th percentiles.
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