Rob Horowitz: National Attention to Obesity Starting to Pay Off

Rob Horowitz: National Attention to Obesity Starting to Pay Off

While the national debate over Obamacare is likely to continue at a high pitch at least through the mid-term elections in November, it is important to remember that health outcomes and costs are not only dependent on our approach to health insurance. No matter what kind of health care system we build, increasing life expectancy and containing costs is in large measure a function of whether or not we succeed in instilling better personal health habits including reducing smoking, drug abuse and obesity.

And on the obesity front there is some good news to report. Americans are no longer getting fatter. Perhaps more importantly, where comprehensive programs to prevent obesity in children have been put in place significant reductions in obesity rates are beginning to be seen.

The obesity epidemic

Stopping the precipitous increases in obesity in adults is an important first step. The average American is 24 pounds heavier today than in 1960, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2013, a report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). In the past 30 years, adult obesity rates have more than doubled; more than 1-in-3 adults are now obese. If this rate of increase continued it was projected that the “obesity rate would reach 50% by 2030 and the medical costs associated with treating preventable obesity related diseases would have increased by between $48 billion and $68 billion a year.” Also projected were hundreds of billions of dollars in lost economic activity each year.

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Obesity is a major cause of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, hypertension, arthritis and cancer, among other maladies. As the report asserts, “More than 75 percent of hypertension cases can be attributed to obesity. And approximately one-third of cancer deaths are linked to obesity or lack of physical activity.”

Encouraging news

If we can take the next step and begin to reduce adult obesity, not only we will get much better health outcomes, but major savings are possible. Just a 5% reduction in Body Mass Index (BMI) could yield cost-reductions of about $160 billion in the next ten years, according to the report.

There is even better news on child obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there are 18 states in which obesity rates for pre-school children from low income families declined. These declines are being seen in ‘’cities and states that were among the first to adopt a comprehensive approach to obesity prevention,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, RWJF president and CEO”. A nationally representative sample of 11 to 16 year olds conducted by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development demonstrates similar results.

Combating obesity

While there is not one silver bullet, we now know what works in this area. It’s the basics: encouraging and providing opportunities for more exercise and hammering home the importance of healthy foods as well as ensuring that all school meals are healthy.

Taken together, involving all community stakeholders, ensuring safe routes to school so children can walk and bike as well as making communities over-all more pedestrian and bike friendly, requiring physical education in school, increasing after-school recreation programs, continually stressing healthy eating with parents and children, and facilitating easier access to healthier foods, produce real results. Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move’ campaign has been particularly helpful in spreading the word and getting communities to form childhood obesity prevention task forces.

Rhode Island and Massachusetts are doing better than most other states on combating obesity with Rhode Island currently ranked as the 14th least obese state and Massachusetts as the 3rd. But, with more than 1-in-4 Rhode Island residents and more than 1-in-5 Massachusetts residents remaining obese, there is still along way to go. It is time, both here in New England and throughout the nation, to build on the positive results, expand on what we now know works and bring more resources and attention to truly solving this persistent public health problem.

 

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.