The Associated Press recently published an article that has been making the rounds in newspapers, TV and radio news programs, blogs and other news outlets. The article, authored by Mike Stobbe, says, “Vermont’s largest city (Burlington) is tops among U.S. metropolitan areas by having the largest proportion of people — 92 percent — who say they are in good or great health.

Burlington’s top ranking is based on the results of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a state-based telephone survey that collects information from adults aged 18 years and older. For this survey more than 350,000 adults are interviewed each year, making BRFSS the largest telephone health survey in the world.

On the other end of the spectrum, the CDC reports that Huntington, W.Va., is the unhealthiest metropolitan area. The CDC commented on the BRFSS results in the August 15, 2008, issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

AFI uses BFRSS data, along with a variety of other inputs, to arrive at the rankings for its data report. Neither the Burlington or Huntington metro areas were included in the ACSM American Fitness Index (AFI) data report issued in May 2008, as the pilot report examined only the top 15 metropolitan areas based on population size (plus Indianapolis, ACSM’s headquarters city).

An expanded pilot version of the report will be available to ASCM members in late 2008 with the top 50 metropolitan areas based on population.

The next full AFI data report will include the top 50 metropolitan areas based on population size — neither Burlington or Huntington are in the top 50 most populous metro areas. The report will be released in May 2009 during the ASCM Annual Meeting in Seattle.