By Glenna Murdock, RN, contributor
Obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The rate of obesity has shown a dramatic increase in the past 30 years in both the adult and child/teen population. Recent data indicates that approximately two-thirds of adults and one-fifth of children are obese or overweight, based on Body Mass Index (BMI) figures.
Being either obese or overweight increases a person’s risk for many chronic illnesses, including heart disease, type-2 diabetes, certain cancers and stroke, along with increasing the need for surgeries such as knee replacement. The cost of treating obesity and its related conditions has doubled over the past decade and may have soared as high as $147 billion in 2008.
At a recent CDC conference on obesity prevention and control held in Washington, D.C., it was revealed that obese people incurred 42 percent more in annual health care expenditures than those maintaining a normal weight, with the cost of prescription drugs being responsible for most of the difference.
The CDC, under the new leadership of Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, has released a set of strategies to help communities battle the epidemic on the home front. Making environmental changes within the community is vital to quelling the epidemic, according to Frieden.
Speaking at CDC’s Weight of the Nation conference in late July, Frieden said, “Reversing obesity is not going to be done successfully with individual effort,” underscoring the need for change at the grassroots level.
The 24 recommended strategies for obesity prevention put forth by the CDC are divided into six categories:
1. Promoting the availability of affordable, healthy food and beverages,
2. Supporting healthy food and beverage choices,
3. Encouraging breastfeeding,
4. Encouraging physical activity or limiting sedentary activity among children and youth,
5. Creating safe communities that support physical activity, and
6. Encouraging communities to organize for change.
Communities are responding to the call for action in a variety of ways. Many are addressing CDC’s suggested strategies of enhancing infrastructure to support walking and locating schools within easy walking distance of residential areas, to name but two.
“Simple things such as safe bike paths and good sidewalks encourage physical activity,” said Wes Hare, city manager of Albany, Ore. “Clearly, community design has an impact on people’s willingness and ability to walk or bike in the course of their daily lives.”
As with Albany, the city of Casper, Wyo., is working in partnership with the school district to locate elementary schools close to neighborhoods so children can walk or bike to school every day, according to Pete Meyers, the city’s public information officer.
“For example, we worked with the district to keep a centrally located school open and helped them expand onsite, rather than building a new school in a location that would make it difficult for students to walk to school,” Meyers said.
One of many broad efforts to encourage healthy habits in the nation’s youth is the School Nurse Childhood Obesity Prevention Education (SCOPE) program. Developed by the National Association of School Nurses, the program trains school nurses in methods of prevention and dealing with the challenges of obesity as they guide students, their families and the school community toward healthier lifestyles.
Frieden of the CDC has boldly suggested a tax of one cent per ounce on sugar-sweetened drinks, arguing that those drinks may be the single largest factor in the obesity epidemic. It is his belief that a 10 percent price increase on such beverages could reduce consumption by 7.8 percent and cites the success of increased taxes in decreasing smoking by half among teenagers in New York.
Whether lawmakers will enact this kind of punitive federal tax has yet to be decided, but in the meantime, Frieden and other health care leaders are encouraging more obesity-fighting efforts at the community and state level.
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