Roughly one third of Tooele County’s population is considered medically obese, according to data from the state and a university research program.
That’s not a new development. In fact, the county’s trouble with obesity has grown gradually for more than a decade, said Jeff Coombs, director of the Tooele County Health Department.
But while 2013 was not a good year for the local battle of the bulge, Coombs said the data does conceal a glimmer of hope.
Estimates based on a 2013 phone survey by the state indicate that more than 35 percent of Tooele County residents were likely obese that year, and that another 38 percent were overweight. Both numbers increased over 2012, when an estimated 28 percent were obese and 37 percent were overweight.
The estimates are based on the Body Mass Index, which assigns labels such as underweight, healthy, overweight or obese according to a numerical score based on an individual’s height and weight.
Values less than 18.5 are considered underweight; 18.5-25 is considered healthy. Individuals who score between 25 and 30 are considered overweight and anything over 30 is considered obese.
For example, an individual who is 5’5” tall and who weighs 180 pounds is considered obese, according to the Body Mass Index. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, those individuals who fall into the obese category are at greater risk of developing conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
However, while the short-term increases may seem like a setback, especially after 2012 saw the obesity rate drop from 31 percent to 28 percent — a drop that cost the county its long-running claim to infamy as the most obese county in Utah — Coombs said the long-term trends suggest the county may still be on track to turn the tide on obesity.
The number of Tooele County residents considered obese increased steadily each year for almost a decade up until 2009, Coombs said, when the county saw its first decrease in years. Since then, he said, the rate has bounced up and down each year. That, Coombs said, suggests the rate of weight gain in the county has begun to slow down, and may even be on the verge of turning around for good.
Until then, Coombs said, addressing obesity remains a top priority for the health department. In just the last year, he said, the department has acquired several sizable grants that have allowed it to expand efforts and programs such as the LiveFit coalition that are dedicated to health education.
But he said he doesn’t expect immediate results.
“It’s like moving a big ball,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of people to get any momentum and get the ball rolling. But I think there’s enough people who are aware and concerned that we can get enough momentum to get the ball rolling in the right direction.”
Tooele County ranks 18 out of 27 Utah counties for overall health, according to the County Health Rankings, which is a program by the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Morgan County topped the 2015 rankings, while Carbon came in at the bottom of the list. Dagget and Rich counties were not ranked because of insufficient statistical information.
Tooele County excels in social and economic factors shown to impact health, according to the health rankings report, and came in as the 7th-best county in the state for its overall social and economic climate.
The report took into account factors such as the county’s relatively high graduation rate — 92 percent compared to the state average of 80 percent — the relatively low crime rate, fewer children living in poverty, and for a low rate of income inequality.
However, Tooele struggled in the quality of life category, which took into account the number of days that residents self-reported physical or mental health challenges. It also took into account the relatively high rate of low-weight births in the county to rank Tooele as 22 out of 27 for quality of life.
But the county’s biggest struggles were in the physical environment category, where Tooele ranked 24 out of 27 Utah counties. The physical environment factors include air and water pollution, housing shortages, and time spent commuting. Commuting was perhaps Tooele County’s biggest challenge to ranking well, Coombs said.
About 68 percent of county residents commute alone to work each day, according to the report, and almost half of those commuters spend more than 30 minutes driving to and from work. According to the health rankings report, Tooele County residents spend more time commuting than residents of any other county in the state.
“If you’re spending two hours a day driving back and forth from work, you have two hours less to spend on physical activity,” Coombs said.
However, as the number of jobs available locally increases, and as Tooele County’s physical environment continues to improve, Coombs said he hopes to see big changes in the county’s overall health in the next 10 to 20 years.