By Brian Crecente, 9:00 AM on Wed Jan 25 2006, 121 views (Edit, to draft, Top, Slurp)

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West Virginia is expanding their Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) PE project to all of the state's 157 middle schools to help spur weight loss, according to the Associated Press.

The story says that they hope to one day put the dancing game in all 753 public schools within three years.

West Virginia is consistently among the top three states for obesity, with about a third of its residents considered obese and even more overweight, according to the state Bureau of Public Health.

Nearly 46 percent of 31,000 fifth-graders screened in a coronary artery risk project from 1999-2005 were considered overweight or obese, according to the Institute of Medicine guidelines.

The project is going to cost about half a million dollars, with Konami pitching in $75,000 of it. Each student will get a game console (they don't say which one), two dance pads and a game. The cost is $740.

Wait... how much? Wow, those must be the really expensive pads, either that or some WV Gamestop is bending the state over on console costs.

W. Va. Schools Get Games to Fight Obesity [AP, thanks, Marc and Ba]