Nobody knows why for sure, but girls in Kansas have been gaining weight at an alarming rate.
From 2003 to 2007, the percentage of Kansas girls 10 to 17 years old who were obese nearly doubled, a new federal study shows.
The 91.4 percent increase in the obesity rate was the greatest experienced by any state and was too large to be considered a statistical fluke, the study’s lead researcher said.
"I think that it is definitely real," said Gopal Singh, an epidemiologist with the Health Resources and Services Administration. "But why, that is quite puzzling."
Indeed, the jump is a head-scratcher for experts who work with overweight kids in Kansas. Some were skeptical about the numbers.
Singh's study, published this month in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, used data from telephone surveys that asked tens of thousands of parents and guardians about the health of their children. More than 40,000 children from the 2003 and the 2007 survey were included in the study.
Read the complete story at kansascity.com