But this relationship is only about 30 years old, according to a new study coauthored by UT researchers and published in Palgrave Communications, an open-access, online journal.
Researchers then compared these obesity rates with the median household income from the U.S. Census.
The study shows that since 1990, the correlation between household income and the obesity rate has grown steadily, from virtually no correlation to a very strong correlation by 2016.
In the decade from 2004 through 2013, obesity increased about one percent on average among the top 25 wealthiest U.S. counties.
Averaged among the 25 poorest U.S. counties, the obesity increase for that decade was more than 10 percent.
According to the CDC, over 93 million adults in the United States—nearly 40 percent—were affected by obesity in the 2015-16 period.
In Tennessee alone, the obesity rate more than tripled, from about 11 percent in 1990 to almost 35 percent in 2016. »