## The correlation between Smoking and Obesity in the South
Smoking data retrived from: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm
Obesity data retrived from: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
(In this write up I will be using data from the states Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia ) The darker the blue on the regional map, the higher the percentage.
The south(southern states in the U.S.) have always had a reputation of high obesity rates and issues with health also including smoking. Health concerns related to smoking and obesity have been some of the biggest killers in the United States since the early 1900s. Is there a link between Smoking and Obesity? Are people that smoke daily more likely to be obese than people that only smoke some days or people that don’t smoke at all?
I believe smoking does have a direct correlation to obesity and states with the most smokers will also have the highest percentage of obese citizens.
ObesityMap The highest percentage of obesity in the south is Louisana with 36.2% of the population suffering from obesity. TMississippi, Alabama and West Virginia are all tied for the second highest rate of Obesity with 35.6% of the population being obese. The lowest percentage of obese citizens is Florida with 26.8%
NeverSmokedMap Pictured below is the map for people in the south who have never smoked. The highest percentage of non-smokers is in Texas with 59% followed by Georgia and Virgina with 56% and 55.5%, respectively. The lowest percentasge of non-smokers is Kentucky with 46.8%.
SmokeSometimesMap This map visualizes the percentage of smokers who only smoke some days and haven’t formed a daily habit from smoking. The state with the biggest percentage of occasional smokers is once again the state of Texas with 7.2% of the population identifying as occasional smokers. The 2nd and 3rd highest states are Georgia and Mississippi, with 7.1% and 6.9% of occasional smokers. The lowest percentage of occasional smokers is Tennessee with 4.7% smoking only on some days.
SmokeEverydayMap This final map visualizes the amount of citizens in the south that have developed smoking as a daily habit. The state witht eh highest percentage of daily smokers is West Virginia with 23.8% of it’s citizens identifying as daily smokers. The second and 3rd highest states with daily smokers are Kentucky and Arkansas with 23.6% and 20.1% daily smokers. The state with the lowest percentage of daily smokers is Texas with 12 percent daily smokers.
After visualizing the data of each seperate catagory for populations in the south, it was time for me to make my comparisons. I will be using bar charts to cross refrence the percentage of obese citizens in each state with each respective category of smokers and non smokers from citizens who have never smoked to citizens that smoke every day.
ObesityxNeverSmoked In this graph I cross refrenced the percentage of obese citizens with the percentage of the population that have never smoked in each southern state. Texas has the highest percentage of people who have never smoked while just being around the middle of the pack when referring to obesity at 8th highest. While Louisana has the highest obesity rate but finished only 8th in percentage of citizens that have never smoked. There is a correlation to be made with these numbers but the correlation does not support my argument.
ObesityxSmokesometimes In this graph I cross refrenced the percentage of obese citizens with the percentage of the population that smokes on occasion. As we know the state with the highest percentage of obesity is Louisana, but once again this does not create a direct relation to smoking habits. Louisana comes in at 6th in percentage of people that only smoke on some days. Florida has the lowest percentage of obese citizens in the south while being 10th in the percentage of occasional smokers.
ObesityxSmokeeveryday In this graph I cross refrenced the percentage of obese citizens with the percentage of the population that smoke every day. This is the graph that I believed would most strongly support my argument. After studying the graph I believe my hypothesis was incorrect. I cannot find any correlation between the two. Louisana having the highest percentage of obese citizens was 5th in percentage of every day smokers. While this correlation is stronger than the other maps I do not believe it is enough evidence to support my argument. West Virginia had the highest percentage of everyday smokers while tying for 2nd with Alabama and Mississippi in obesity. The state West Virginia is the strongest supporter of my argument but Alabama and Missippi came in sixth and seventh in the percentage of everyday smokers, breaking down my argument completely.
Overall I believe my hypothesis was incorrect, there is no direct correlation between smoking and obesity in the south. Even though my hypothesis was incorrect I enjoyed learning about obesity and smoking in the southern states of the U.S., I believe health concerns in the south are a gigantic problem and without conducting more research on the data we have we may never be able to solve the health issues that plague this region of our country.