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Kansas City comes in at 36th in annual American Fitness Index

Posted at 5:07 AM, May 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-16 07:06:27-04

Kansas City dropped six spots in the 10th annual American Fitness Index (AFI) released by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Anthem Foundation.

According to a news release, Minneapolis-St. Paul ranked number 1 in the study with Washington, D.C. coming in second. 

Kansas City is one of the cities that experienced the largest drop in rankings this year.

The news release said there were some positive shifts during the last year:

  • 16.0 percent increase in the percent who met the recommendations for aerobic and strength in the last 30 days
  • 10.5 percent drop in the percent with diagnosed angina or coronary heart disease
  • 3.9 percent increase in walkability scores
  • 3.9 percent increase in the percent who live within a 10-minute walk to a park

The report also showed shortcomings:

  • 11.7 percent increase in the rate of diabetes deaths
  • 6.3 percent reduction in the percent of residents biking or walking to work
  • 6.2 percent decrease in the percent of individuals eating the recommended number of servings of fruit

The news release said long-term trends include the following:

  • Smoking rates have declined (18.7 percent to 16.7 percent)
  • Drops in the death rates for diabetes (24.0/100,000 to 18.7/100,000) and cardiovascular diseases (223.0/100,000 to 174.6/100,000)
  • Residents biking or walking to work doubled (1.3 percent to 2.9 percent)

The 10-year comparison of AFI data also showed the percent categorized as obese increased (25.4 percent to 28.7 percent), the percent diagnosed with asthma increased (8.2 percent to 9.0 percent) as did the percent with diabetes (8.0 percent to 10.7 percent), according to the news release.

Click here to see the full rankings and learn more about the study.

Click here to see Kansas City’s data.