See page six of the paper for the authors dealing with this point. It’s certainly a potential explanation, but the map of obesity in the US does seem to suggest that being, say, at the mouth of the Mississippi basin is much worse than being on the west coast, despite them both being at sea level.
The mouth of the Mississippi basin is much poorer than the West Coast, and has a lot fewer Asians (who are exceptionally thin). I’d guess those things probably play a role.
That’s a map of highest elevation by county. I don’t think most people in LA County (third from bottom on the California coast) live above 6800 feet, because most people don’t live on mountains even if one exists in their county.
The map of average elevation by county looks similar, but you are right that this matters very little because people are disproportionally likely to live in low elevations.
See page six of the paper for the authors dealing with this point. It’s certainly a potential explanation, but the map of obesity in the US does seem to suggest that being, say, at the mouth of the Mississippi basin is much worse than being on the west coast, despite them both being at sea level.
The mouth of the Mississippi basin is much poorer than the West Coast, and has a lot fewer Asians (who are exceptionally thin). I’d guess those things probably play a role.
Educational attainment is strongly correlated with obesity rate across US states:
I used this obesity dataset from the CDC and this educational attainment dataset from the USDA.
Also, the mouth of the Mississippi basin does seem to be at a lower elevation than the West Coast:
That’s a map of highest elevation by county. I don’t think most people in LA County (third from bottom on the California coast) live above 6800 feet, because most people don’t live on mountains even if one exists in their county.
Oops, sorry.
The map of average elevation by county looks similar, but you are right that this matters very little because people are disproportionally likely to live in low elevations.