If the big variation in arthritis across the country isn't driven just by people getting older, then what explains it?
Local factors are always at play. The predominance of certain types of occupations and occupational conditions. Lifestyle options. Access to care and the quality of care.
The factor that I think merits deeper inquiry, though, is obesity.
For most of the last two decades, obesity rates have been rising in nearly every county in the U.S., even in some of the healthiest counties. And the differences in obesity rates are considerable, from 18 percent of all women in Falls Church, Virginia, to 59 percent in Issaquena, Mississippi.
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