Partnership Advisor Tells Congress Childhood Obesity "is a true epidemic"

Dr. Joe Thompson, Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, told Members of the Senate HELP Committee last week that childhood obesity “is a true epidemic;  one that every family is susceptible to.  Simply put, children are consuming more calories than they burn.  To restore “energy balance” in our children’s lives, we need to ensure that the places where they live, learn and play support healthy eating and physical activity.”

Thompson, a pediatrician and member of Partnership for Prevention’s Council of Advisors, told the Senate panel:  “We need to make healthy choices the easy choice for children and families.” 

He warned “Obesity is affecting our military readiness, crippling state and national budgets, and putting U.S. businesses at a competitive disadvantage by reducing worker productivity and increasing health care costs…(W)e have created an environment that fosters rather than prevents childhood obesity. We did not intentionally get here, but we must intentionally find our way forward.  The environments in which people live, learn work and play affect their health and the health of their communities.”

Thompson highlighted work going on in his home state of Arkansas to go beyond the school environment and use coalitions to support communities solutions to “improve access to healthy foods, address the built environment, engage early childcare and after-school programs in health eating and physical activity, encourage employers through worksite wellness, and partner with health care providers.” He also shared with Senators the work being undertaken in Dallas with a lack of sidewalks has created a dangerous and sedentary environment for pedestrian travel.  The effort resulted in a $12 million dollar public – private effort that  helped  “connect all of the trails in the Dallas trail system to allow people to travel from one side of the city to the other without intersecting traffic.”

Perhaps the most important message Thompson left Senators was the warning that to prevent childhood obesity, change is necessary on many levels and “the federal government cannot do this alone.” He had specific and useful advice for school officials, government leaders, food and beverage industries and parents.

Reversing childhood obesity is an opportunity for those of us in public health to reach out beyond the traditional health community and find new friends and allies among business, land use and transportation stakeholders. We need to make elected officials at the local, state and Federal level more aware that having access to affordable healthy foods and safe places for children to play is of concern to all sectors that support a healthy and prosperous community.

This latest Senate hearing on childhood obesity prevention was entitled:  “Beginning the Dialogue on Reversing the Epidemic.” In recent years there’s been much talk in Congress about childhood obesity and hopefully, all that talk will now lead to meaningful action.  At the moment, meaningful action means passage of comprehensive health reform. 

The health reform bill, H.R. 3590, now pending final passage in the US House of Representatives includes millions of dollars in critically needed funding to support the type of community prevention programs that will help reverse childhood obesity and bring healthier environments to every American community. Passage of this bill is a good place for Congress to start if they are serious about addressing the childhood obesity epidemic.

Ripley Forbes, Director, Government Affairs

Partnership for Prevention

Report Card on Health, Ill-Fitting Condoms named Best/Worst Prevention Ideas of the Week

The new report card that compares the health of U.S. counties was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while a study showing that poorly fitting condoms contribute to improper use was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

The “Best/Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are submitted by Partnership staff as well as the general public, and are voted on by the staff. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders who are working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

BEST

New Report Card Compares Health of US Counties

A new report card allows you to compare the health status of any county in the country with that of another. "County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health," a health report card for almost every one of the nation's more than 3,000 counties, was released on Wednesday, February 17 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute.

WORST

Ill-Fitting Condoms Contribute To Improper Use, Study Finds

Men are more likely to remove a condom during sex or experience condom failures if they use a poorly fitting condom, according to a University of Kentucky study. Condoms that do not fit properly raise the risks of infection and pregnancy, as well as reduce pleasure for both partners, the study found.

New Report Card Compares Health of US Counties

A new report card allows you to compare the health status of any county in the country with that of another. "County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health," a health report card for almost every one of the nation's more than 3,000 counties, is being released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute.

Poll: Two-thirds of U.S. Support $1 Tobacco Tax Hike

A new national poll finds that 67 percent of voters support a $1 tobacco tax increase.  The poll also found that voters far prefer higher tobacco taxes to other options, such as other tax increases or budget cuts, for addressing state budget deficits.

The poll was released along with a report entitled: Tobacco Taxes: A Win-Win-Win for Cash-Strapped States. The report, released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The report details the revenue and health benefits to each state of increasing its cigarette tax by $1 per pack. According to the report, if every state and Washington, DC, did so, they would:

·        Raise $9.1 billion in new annual revenue;

·        Prevent more than 2.3 million kids from becoming smokers;

·        Prompt more than 1.2 million adult smokers to quit;

·        Prevent more than 1 million premature, smoking-caused deaths; and

·        Save $52.8 billion in health care costs.

"Healthy Kids, Healthy Future" Conference to Be Liveblogged

Starting midday today and continuing through Thursday, the "Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures" conference in Washington, DC, will feature live reporting via liveblogging and Twitter. This will include interviews with speakers including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, guest posts and more. Organizers will be using Twitter to cover the event at the hashtag #hkhf09.

The two-day conference, Healthy Kids, Healthy Future, will convene children’s health and early education experts, Administration officials, scholars, public health officials and early care program administrators to address these questions and more. Other speakers include Martha Coven, Director of the White House Office of Mobility and Opportunities; Joe Thompson, MD, MPH, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity.

The event is hosted by Nemours, one of the nation’s leading pediatric health systems, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, with support from the Altarum Institute.

Prevention Is Vital to Health Systems Reform, Say Foundations

The Convergence Partnership, a collaboration of six of the country's top health foundation, has issued a joint statement (3 pages, PDF) from the leaders of those foundations calling for prevention measures to be central to the reform of our national health system.

Top officials at the California Endowment, Nemours, Kaiser Permanente, and the Robert Wood Johnson, Kresge, and W.K. Kellogg foundations wrote that prevention measures such as early health screenings and improved access to healthy food will save both lives and money. As Congress debates how to reform the system, the foundation leaders emphasize that prevention can save money and improve the long-term health of the population.

A 2008 study by the Trust for America's Health, Prevention for a Healthier America (72 pages, PDF) found that for every dollar invested in proven community-based disease prevention programs, the nation saves $5.60. According to the study, investing $10 in prevention per person would yield annual savings of more than $16 billion nationwide within five years.

"Over time," the signatories wrote, "a focus on community prevention will improve health, save money, reduce demands on our health system, and, most important, lead to a nation of healthier people and healthier places to live."

Podcast #17 - The Commission to Build a Healthier America

What makes Americans sick, and how can we keep them healthy? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established a panel of distinguished experts - the Commission to Build a Healthier America - to explore these fundamental but complex questions. Dr. David R. Williams, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, is the commission's staff director. He discusses the commission's findings and how they impact every segment of society.