Indiana’s adult population is still about as obese as it was a year ago, but the state’s ranking has improved to 16th because more adults throughout the country are packing on the pounds.

This is among the findings in an annual state-by-state obesity report released this morning by the Washington, D.C.-based Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, N.J., the nation’s largest philanthropy.

The rate of obese Hoosier adults essentially remained stable at 27.4 percent, dipping just 0.1 percentage point, compared to last year’s rate. The change was within the survey’s margin of error, so report officials did not consider it statistically significant.

But Indiana’s standing rose because no other state experienced a significant drop and adult obesity rates increased in 23 states, according to the report, “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009.”

Hoosier children ages 10 to 17 didn’t do that well either, although the ranking for those overweight or obese was 31st highest nationally. Their 29.9 percent rate was down from 32.9 percent in 2004, the last time children’s rates were included in this report. But officials said the dip was not statistically significant. These numbers are based on a 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health.

As the nation debates major health care reform, there was little encouraging news in the report. One of the key findings also predicted the current economic crisis could exacerbate the obesity epidemic, due to rising food prices, particularly for nutritious foods, and increases in anxiety and stress associated with obesity.

“Our health care costs have grown along with our waist lines,” said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, a non-profit organization focusing on prevention, in a release. “The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health care costs in the United States.”

More than two-thirds (67 percent) of American adults are either overweight or obese. Now, more Americans are obese, 32.7 percent, than are overweight. Adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight, while those with a body mass index of 30 or more are considered obese.