Prevention Matters

Kathie Ruffatto, Partnership’s Program Associate for Worksite Health, co-presented with Bill Sells ,Vice President, Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association at the YMCA State Wide Pioneering Healthier Communities Conference today. The YMCA State Wide Pioneering Healthier Communities Initiative was launched in 2008 at local and state levels in six states and in 32 communities. This year Illinois, Michigan and Ohio have been selected to join the movement to create healthier communities through policy, systems and environmental change strategies.

Participants from each state were able to attend various break-out sessions on different topics. The focus of Kathie and Bill’s break out session was how employers and employees can increase their health through worksite wellness policies. Bill Sells discussed the importance of physical activity both in the workplace and the community and how the workplace can influence one another. He emphasized that creating a culture of health amongst the nation’s youth should be top priority for policymakers.

Kathie followed Bill’s presentation by highlighting the significance of good nutrition in workplaces and underscored the important role CEOs and top management play in creating environments conducive to good health. With new Leading by Example publications, Kathie was able to give specific examples of successful nutrition policies from the featured companies.

The presentations spurred a lively discussion on the importance of worksite wellness and how they could help support businesses within their communities. Questions ranged from transportation to program and/or policy implementation. All of these communities are or will begin to take great strides in removing barriers so that their citizens can be healthy. They are taking an important first step in understanding what it takes to create a culture of health.

"Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample consisting of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention.

BEST

Kids benefit from strength training a few times a week

While strength training was once doubted to benefit kids, a new research review confirms that children and teenagers can boost their muscle strength with regular workouts.

The findings, researchers say, support recent recommendations from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) that kids strength-train two to three times a week -- though only under professional supervision. In years past, there were concerns that school-age children and teenagers might run a high risk of injuring themselves through strength training, which can be performed using free weights, exercise machines, elastic bands or the body's own resistance.


WORST

U.S. Preschoolers Getting Too Much Screen Time: Combined hours between home and day care often exceed recommended 2-hour daily limit


Two-thirds of preschoolers in the United States are exposed to more than the maximum two hours per day of screen time from television, computers, video games and DVDs recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, a new study has found.

Researchers from Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington looked at the daily screen time of nearly 9,000 preschool-age children included in the national Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, an observational study of more than 10,000 children born in 2001.


The “Best and Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. "Best and Worst News for Prevention” is based on a purposive sample of expert staff members who each week choose to share their opinions on the best and worst news for prevention. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

President Barack Obama issued a Proclamation from the White House earlier this month declaring September “National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.” He said childhood obesity was a national crisis “with nearly one in every three of America's children being overweight or obese” and noted that obesity affects children in every state, that “particular racial and ethnic groups are more severely impacted” and that “obesity can be influenced by a number of environmental and behavioral factors, including unhealthy eating patterns and too little physical activity at home and at school.”

The President acknowledged that more must be done “to halt and reverse this epidemic, as obesity can lead to severe and chronic health problems during childhood, adolescence and adulthood, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and asthma.” Nearly $150 billion is spent annually on obesity-related medical conditions. “This is not the future” he added “to which we want to consign our children, and it is a burden our health care system cannot bear.

Partnership believes the Proclamation is a timely and important opportunity to remind Americans of the goals and accomplishments of the First Lady’s "Let's Move!" initiative to combat childhood obesity. “Let’s Move” is an historic public health campaign guided by the recommendations of a Task Force on Childhood Obesity which was charged with review of all programs and policies relating to child nutrition and physical activity and development of a national action plan to maximize federal resources and set concrete benchmarks that can end childhood obesity in a generation. The Task Force has produced a report containing a comprehensive set of recommendations and “strategies to address childhood obesity, including providing healthier food in schools, ensuring access to healthy affordable food, increasing opportunities for physical activity, empowering parents and caregivers with better information about making healthy choices, and giving children a healthy start in life.”

Reducing the incidence of childhood obesity will not be easy or quick. While this crisis has been building for three decades growing awareness and resolve across all sectors of our country provide hope that the President’s goal of reducing childhood obesity to 5% by the year 2030 is achievable.

“Our history shows that when we are united in our convictions, we can safeguard the health and safety of America's children for generations to come. When waves of American children were stricken with polio and disabled for life, we developed a nationwide immunization program that eradicated this crippling disease from our shores within a matter of decades. When we discovered that children were going to school hungry because their families could not afford nutritious meals, we created the National School Lunch Program. Today, this program feeds more than 30 million American children, often at little or no charge. When we work together, we can overcome any obstacle and protect our Nation's most precious resource -- our children. As we take steps to turn around the epidemic of childhood obesity, I am confident that we will solve this problem together, and that we will solve it in a generation.

Partnership for Prevention, the Congressional Prevention Caucus and the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association are sponsoring two Capitol Hill briefings on September 21 to broaden the awareness of legislators and congressional staff about the threat childhood obesity poses to our nation. The briefings, “Eliminating Childhood Obesity: Developing National Consensus on a Prescription for Change” will include presentations by some of the nation’s most distinguished medical leaders including:

Ursula Bauer, PhD, Director, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Joe Thompson, MD, MPH, Surgeon General for the State of Arkansas and Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Laura Hayman, PhD, RN, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Nursing in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Boston

These briefings are open to the public. Anyone interested in attending can send their contact information and indicate whether they will attend the House or Senate briefing to meetings@prevent.org

Partnership for Prevention recently exhibited at the 2010 National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) in Louisville, Kentucky. The conference was widely attended by legislators, legislative staffers, government officials, business representatives, union members, foundation representatives and others interested in public policy. Concurrent sessions focused on the economy, transportation, education, health care, human services, energy, environment and professional development for legislators and staff. Many state representatives and senators came to the Partnership exhibit booth to hear information about the organization and its policy and programmatic efforts. Save Lives and Money - Help People on Medicaid Quit Tobacco, a new resource from Partnership for Prevention /ActionToQuit and the American Lung Association, garnered the most attention from state legislators and other conference attendees. This resource underscored that Medicaid recipients smoke more than any other population segment and made the argument that, by covering all of them, individual states could save both lives and money. Only six states lead the way in providing the seven recommended medications and group and individual counseling for all Medicaid patients. Save Lives and Money can be downloaded on the ActionToQuit website’s “Resources” section at http://actiontoquit.org/resources/.

Partnership staff also engaged legislators and staffers through the distribution of hand sanitizer, especially Kentucky Senator Gerald A. Neal (D). Senator Neal was intrigued by Partnership’s hand sanitizer “give away” as a mechanism to promote good health and prevent disease. The Kentucky Senator was very interested in distributing hand sanitizer at a community health event that stressed the importance of the prevention. During the dialogue, Partnership identified various health agenda intersections and plans to follow up with his office to discuss community health prevention. In addition to the hand sanitizer, Partnership also distributed a CD of the organization’s top five publications to legislative staffers. Entitled “NCSL 2010”, the CD included the following publications: 2009 Annual Report, CDC Action Guide: Places for Physical Activity, CDC Action Guide: Social Support for Physical Activity, Healthy Workforce 2010 and Beyond, Investing In Health, and Smokefree Policies. Legislative staffers liked the idea of having the organization’s most popular publications on a compact disc. Many expressed that it would help streamline their efforts when needing to consult with a “prevention” authority.

A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showing that the construction of a light-rail system (LRT) resulted in increased physical activity and subsequent weight loss was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the recent report from Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that 28 US states saw obesity rates increase last year was named the “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 Study Finds Public Transit Systems Contribute To Weight Loss and Improved Health

Increasing the availability of public transit systems is one among a number of modifications to the built environment that offers opportunities for increasing physical activity and reducing the prevalence of obesity and its associated problems. In a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and the RAND Corporation found that construction of a light-rail system (LRT) resulted in increased physical activity (walking) and subsequent weight loss by people served by the LRT. These findings suggest that improving neighborhood environments and increasing the public's use of LRT systems could improve health outcomes and potentially impact millions of individuals.

WORST

Adult Obesity Rates Rose in 28 States and Fell in Just One


28 US states saw obesity rates still rising last year, while the only place to experience a decline was the District of Columbia (D.C.), F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010, according to a report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). In 38 US states more than 25% of the adult population is obese. 19 years ago the number of US states with an obesity rate of over 20% was zero.

The USA has had the highest adult obesity rate in the world for several years.

As a nation we are concerned about childhood/adolescent obesity and overweight, yet state and district-level policies regarding physical education, physical activity, and nutrition are significantly lacking, especially at the middle and high school level. Students at the middle and high school level have the highest rates of obesity among all children and adolescents. Judging by these facts, you would think that more state- and district-level policies would be in place to help counter the growing obesity epidemic among this age-group. However, a recent publication by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) titled “Obesity Prevention for Middle and High Schools: Are We Doing Enough?,” reviewed state-level and district-level policies regarding physical activity and nutrition and found a strong paradox: “while adolescents have the highest rates of obesity, are the least physically active, and consume more junk food and sugary beverages, both state- and district-level policies addressing these issues in the school environment are often more frequent and restrictive at the elementary level. In addition, in many areas, policies are simply not addressing critical components of school nutrition and physical activity at any level.”

The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that children and adolescents obtain at least 30 minutes of the required 60 minutes per day of physical activity at school. Despite this guideline, NASBE’s survey found that only three states required time in minutes outside of physical education, only 20% of states had a required time and/or frequency for physical education at the high school level, and only 34% of states requiring physical education at the middle school level had a time frequency requirement. In addition, no states and only 8% of districts had a high school requirement for a percentage of class time to be spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and only 6% of states and 9% of districts had this requirement at a middle school level. Finally, 82% of states had a high school physical education requirement but 28% of these states had liberal exemption policies.

Regarding nutrition, only three states had policies which aimed at increasing access to fruits and vegetables at the middle and high school level and only three states had a policy restricting food marketing. In addition, only 22% of states required nutrition standards limiting fats, sugar, calories, and/or portion sizes in middle and high schools. 38% of states and 49% of districts had nutrition standard policies in high schools, 46% of states and 51% of districts had these standards in middle schools, and 50% of states had these standards in elementary schools. Finally, only three states and 2% of districts had policies at the middle and high school levels that prohibited all sodas (both regular and diet) and all other sugar-sweetened beverages and 30% of states only prohibited regular sugar-sweetened sodas.

All this data brings up one major question: Why aren’t states and districts pushing for more frequent and stronger policies regarding physical activity and nutrition? After all, we have a growing epidemic on our hands and children and adolescents are at the heart of it. Currently, an estimated 34% of adolescents are overweight or obese and this trend is only increasing. If widespread policies are not adopted soon these overweight children and adolescents will become overweight or obese adults, threatened by preventable chronic diseases since “overweight adolescents have a 70% chance of becoming overweight or obese adults.” While it is true that middle and high schools have many demands including increasing overall student achievement and decreasing drop-out rates, this does not mean that physical activity and nutrition should fall by the wayside. By placing physical activity and nutrition at the bottom of the priority list, schools may in fact be negatively affecting the overall success of their students since “overweight and obese students are more likely to have greater rates of absenteeism and experience more bullying and teasing, which may affect their academic performance and achievement.”

So, are we actually doing enough?

The answer is No. Policies and programs addressing middle and high schools need to be more frequent, more restrictive, and required rather than merely suggested. The promotion of physical activity and nutrition needs to be widespread at all school levels: elementary, middle, and high school. We may gasp at the obesity problem and encourage children and adolescents to exercise and eat healthfully, but if our policies do not match our message then we are failing the students we intend to serve.

Note: All direct quotes come from NASBE’s May 2010 publication, “Obesity Prevention for Middle and High Schools: Are We Doing Enough?” which can be found here.

Kathryn Burggraf
Tobacco Control Intern
Partnership for Prevention

US Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin told Congress yesterday that obesity “may dramatically impact the quality and longevity of life for an entire generation of children.” In forceful testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education and Pensions, Benjamin noted “the prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically in the United States, tripling among children and doubling among adults. Today, two-thirds of adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese.” She explained that from 1980 to 2008, obesity among adults rose from 13.4% to 34.3% and among children, rates rose from 5% to 17%.

The solution isn’t easy or quick but it is obvious and encouraging that the Obama administration is engaged. The Surgeon General explained that last month the President established a new Task Force on Childhood Obesity and charged it with reviewing all Federal programs dealing with child nutrition and physical activity and developing a national action plan. The National Action Plan is scheduled to be completed by May 9. Perhaps no less important, is the very visible role and support to this effort being given by First Lady Michelle Obama and her commitment to end “childhood obesity within a generation.” Her “Let’s Move” campaign is being supported by an innovative series of new web-based tools including the next generation Food Pyramid and USDA’s Food Environmental Atlas. These projects will help families make healthier food and physical activity choices and better understand national and local trends on food decisions.

Benjamin concluded her testimony with a simple but powerful message. “Instead of bombarding people with lists of what not to do, we need to empower them with what to do to promote health. Healthy eating and physical activity should be something all Americans want to do, not something they feel they have to do. We need to encourage people to take up activities that they enjoy, like swimming, dancing, or biking. We need to show them how healthy foods can be affordable, accessible, and delicious.”

Sage advice from the nation’s Family Doctor.

Posted by:
Ripley Forbes
Director, Government Affairs, Partnership for Prevention

London's aging baby boomers will soon get their own specially designed outdoor playground. The park will offer low-impact exercise equipment to help older people improve their balance and flexibility and tone muscles that may not have been tested for decades.

"We wanted something that would be of long-term benefit to people, so we came up with this idea for an older person's playground," says Madeline Elsdon, whose local residents' association has won funding for the playground, which is planned for London's popular Hyde Park.

Exercise areas aimed at the elderly are popular in Europe and Asia, and there's already a U.K. precedent—an over-60 playground billed as Britain's first opened in Manchester's Dam Head Park two years ago. The equipment there was still seeing use Wednesday—with senior citizens swinging their legs and working their hips on the machines despite temperatures that hovered around freezing.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded more than $119 million to states and U.S. territories to support public health efforts to reduce obesity, increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and decrease smoking-the four most important actions for combating chronic diseases and promoting health. This money supports the one of several components in the Department's comprehensive prevention and wellness initiative, Communities Putting Prevention to Work, which is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

That report, entitled "Dangerous by Design." was prepared by a coalition called Transportation for America. In this podcast, we're talking with David Goldberg, Director of Communications for that coalition.
 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched its new "Be Active Your Way" blog. The Blog is designed to stimulate dialogue among professionals who encourage Americans to get the physical activity they need according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

Several "supporter" organizations serve as blog contributors, and a new blog item is posted each Wednesday. Anyone interested in the conversation can participate, as supporters and other professionals who work in the field of physical activity are welcome to share lessons learned by posting comments.

People living in "healthy neighborhoods" that provide easy opportunities for exercise and healthy eating were less likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in a five-year cohort study, after controlling for such factors as age, income, race, and education. "The strength of the association was considerable and equivalent to a reduction in type 2 diabetes incidence associated with a BMI of 5 [points] lower in this sample," Amy Auchincloss, PhD, MPH, of Drexel University in Philadelphia, and colleagues wrote in the Oct. 12 Archives of Internal Medicine. The analysis covered participants in Baltimore, the Bronx borough of New York City, and the North Carolina county that includes Winston-Salem.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has published research on efforts by California school districts to encourage healthy eating and physical fitness among its students.


Findings from online surveys and focus groups, as well as interviews with school board members, leaders of state associations of school boards, state directors of nutrition and school wellness advocates
identified the following as the most significant barriers to effective school wellness policies:

• Inadequate funding, such as for staff and facilities, to implement and monitor a policy.
• Competing priorities and lack of time.
• Lack of support from students, parents and the community.
• A need for tools and training.

The Boston Globe reports how local schools are boosting the physical activity of its students at recess to help curb childhood obesity, and in the process are discovering some unintended benefits.

Conservatory Lab Charter School and other elementary schools around the area are bringing in leaders — often college athletes — to organize more vigorous recess activities like kickball, tag and Hula-Hooping.

“Now there is zero inactivity and almost zero incidents of discipline problems on the playground,” says Annie Sevelius, codirector at Conservatory Lab. “We hardly have any fights. Before, there were skirmishes, arguing, grabbing, and trash-talking.”

USA TODAY's Liz Szabo reports that about 200,000 children go to the emergency room every year because of playground injuries. About 90,000 of those injuries are serious, such as fractures, concussions and amputations. About 15 kids die from playground injuries every year.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says most injuries occur when children fall from equipment, so playgrounds need to be built properly and maintained in top shape.