Obesity Discussion Forums

[Obesity Discussion]

http://www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com/

The Epidemic
57% of North Carolina adults are overweight or obese. (CDC BRFSS, 2002)
20% of non-Hispanic white adults, 38% of non-Hispanic black adults, and 18% of Hispanic adults in North Carolina are obese. (CDC BRFSS, 2002)
The obesity rate among North Carolina adults rose by 82% from 1990 to 2002. (CDC BRFSS,1990, 2002)
27% of North Carolina high school students are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. (CDC YRBSS, 2003)

Program Priorities
The North Carolina state plan for nutrition and physical activity to prevent obesity includes three documents:

Moving Our Children Toward a Healthy Weight: Finding the Will and the Way
The North Carolina Blueprint for Changing Policies and Environments in Support of Healthy Eating
The North Carolina Blueprint for Changing Policies and Environments in Support of Physical Activity
One major intervention pilot project is nearing conclusion:

The Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP-SACC) Project is a pilot intervention in child care centers aimed at improving nutrition and physical activity environments and practices through self-assessment and targeted technical assistance. The intervention was implemented in six counties throughout North Carolina, with two additional counties serving as controls. Twelve intervention centers and four control centers participated in this pilot intervention. Fifteen intervention centers were enrolled at the onset of the study, but three centers withdrew from the project. All of the centers participated in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which is a federal food assistance program for child care centers with a large proportion of low-income children. The model for this intervention includes use of a local health professionals, typically a registered nurse, as Child Care Health Consultants (CCHC) to provide individual guidance, continuing education, and targeted technical assistance to the child care centers in that county. Child Care Health Consultants that worked in the intervention counties attended a six-hour training session on the NAP-SACC project. Final data are now being collected for the NAP-SACC project. Several intervention child care centers remodeled existing space to promote physical activity.


Partners
East Carolina University School of Medicine
Local health departments
Local physical activity and nutrition coalitions
North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians
North Carolina Action for Healthy Kids
North Carolina Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance
North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
North Carolina 5 A Day Coalition
North Carolina DPH Chronic Injury and Disease Section
North Carolina DPH Women’s and Children’s Health Section
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission
North Carolina Healthy Schools
North Carolina Institute of Health
North Carolina Prevention Partners
North Carolina Parent Teachers Association
North Carolina Smart Growth Association
North Carolina State Board of Education
North Carolina State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health
SAS Institute

Recent Events and Products
Established North Carolina Consensus Panel to Recommend Standards for All Foods Available in School.
Held a North Carolina 5 A Day stakeholders retreat.
Held a school consultant regional meeting.
Held a Healthy Eating Summit.
Developed and provided training on a new data collection instrument to collect additional data on physical activity and nutrition behaviors of children seen in all North Carolina health departments.
Provided grants to 15 local communities to implement strategies that advance the recommendation in the state plan.
Established a Physical Activity and Nutrition Grant Advisory Council made up of of representatives of partnering agencies and programs to support the development and implementation of grant activities.

Upcoming Events and Products
Six regional trainings on Winning With ACES’s: How You Can Work Toward Active Community Environments will be offered for local health promotion coordinators and their partners.
Follow-up interviews with child care providers and a focus group with child care health consultants will be conducted for evaluation of the NAP-SACC intervention.
A Breast-feeding Blueprint will be added to the state plan.
School food standards will be developed to promote policy and environmental change at the local and state levels and to increase opportunities for healthy eating at school, with a goal of reducing the risk of costly chronic health conditions associated with poor diets and obesity.
Project Period: 2003–2008
Year First Funded: 2000
Funding Stage: Capacity Building
Contact Person:
Cathy Thomas, MAED, CHES
Project Coordinator
North Carolina Division of Public Health
Telephone - 919-715-3830
Fax - 919-715-0433
E-mail: cathy.thomas@ncmail.net
Web site - www.NCHealthyWeight.com* and www.EatSmartMoveMoreNC.com*

Data Sources
CDC BRFSS — CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
CDC PedNSS — CDC’s Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System
CDC YRBSS — CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obes...h_carolina.htm

[Obesity Discussion]

Grants aid local battle against obesity $511,000 lets a lean task force fatten its efforts to slim us down

A year-old obesity task force just got a $511,000 caloric boost.
This energy infusion will be used for healthy eating and fitness programs aimed at area residents who have lower income or are considered under served.
"Oh my gosh, be careful what you wish for," said Lynn Smithdeal, chair of the Cape Fear Healthy Carolinians Obesity Prevention Committee. "Now the work starts."
According to the 2005 update of the state's Health Profile of North Carolinians, 24 percent of adults were obese in 2003, almost double the 1990 rate. The state tips the scale above the United States average, which was 22.8 percent. The numbers have since increased.
Children mirror these statistics, and the alarm has been raised nationally that this just might be the first generation whose life expectancy is lower than their parents' generation.
Smithdeal's committee and some 30 local organizations - including health groups, large employers and county and city administrators - have met to come up with a plan of attack. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, the group decided that reaching adults in the workplace, children in schools and families in their neighborhoods would have the most impact. All they needed was the funding.
Now they've got it.
Here's a sampling of what two grants - $286,000 over two years from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and $225,000 over three years from the Cape Fear Memorial Foundation - will pay for:
SALARIES of a community health educator and an obesity prevention initiative coordinator.
DAY-CARE initiative to educate home providers and children about fitness and nutrition.
YMCA nutritional, exercise and wellness programs in public housing neighborhoods for 200 youths.
Recess exercise equipment for New Hanover County elementary schools.
EVALUATION and peer health education programs by Wilmington Health Access for Teens for overweight middle school students.
BILINGUAL health educator to promote healthy eating and exercise among Hispanic parents and children.
ESTABLISHMENT of a community garden in one of the Wilmington Housing Authority developments.
Other initiatives the committee continues to work on include marking neighborhood walking trails and partnering with area restaurants to promote healthy menu items.
"We hope to change the look of the counties," Smithdeal said.
"We want to make New Hanover and Brunswick counties more exercise-friendly counties and more nutritionally aware."

Article

[Obesity Discussion]

N.C. obesity plan seeks improvement by 2012

By ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
August 29, 2006 4:30 pm

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Fighting obesity in North Carolina will be as tough a challenge as the campaign to reduce smoking has been, the authors of a statewide plan to cut the number of overweight people said Tuesday.

"Anyone who is overweight knows they didn't get there in a hurry," said Rebecca Reeve, a school health specialist with the state Division of Public Health.

The plan entitled, "Eat Smart, Move More," outlines four goals: encourage policy changes that result in healthy living, get more North Carolinians to a healthy weight, increase the number of state residents eating a healthy diet and raise the percentage of adults and children who exercise.

More than 21 percent of adults are considered obese in North Carolina. The study authors want that number to remain flat between now and 2012.

The state plan was presented at an obesity conference at North Carolina State University where a national obesity report also was unveiled by Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group that promotes increased financing for public health programs.

"This document is what we're going to take to our meetings, our churches, our schools," said Anne Hardison of Healthy Carolinians of Carteret County. "I've been asked, `Just tell us what to do.'"

North Carolina ranked 17th in adult obesity, according to the national study. The fattest state was Mississippi, followed by Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky in the top five. The leanest state was Colorado.

Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group that tracked obesity rates, said more government intervention as well as help from employers and the food and beverage industry would help people lose weight.

"If we're urging people to walk more, and their streets are not safe, that's an unrealistic expectation," Jeff Levi, the group's executive director, said during a news conference at N.C. State.

"If we're urging people to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and they don't have access to a supermarket or the cost is beyond their capacity, then we're not asking them to take responsibility for something they have control over."

The report released by the trust said the highest obesity rates were found in the South. Levy said he didn't know why that was.

Kathryn Kolasa, a nutritionist with East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, said higher fat in the diets of people from eastern North Carolina and other regions may have been a result of earlier concerns about underweight babies and malnutrition in poor, rural areas. She also said poor people who don't have regular access to food may overeat when they have money to buy it.

The report recommends increasing by 14 percent the number of state residents who have five or more servings of fruit and vegetables daily and reducing the number of children who eat fast food three or more times a week by 25 percent.

The state report also recommended greater rates of breast-feeding babies, boosting daily physical activity and eating more meals at home.

`When you eat at home, you have greater control over portion sizes," said Sheree Vodicka, a healthy weight coordinator in the state Division of Public Health.

Eating at home is likely to include "more fruits and vegetables, more milk and less salt and fat," Vodicka said.

Links related to this article:
N.C. obesity plan: eatsmartmovemorenc.com
Trust for America's Health: healthyamericans.org

Obesity in North Carolina

[Obesity Discussion]

RALEIGH – North Carolina officials plan to launch Fit Workplace, the state's first comprehensive workplace wellness campaign today.

A Webcast is scheduled for 2 p.m. today.

Fit Workplace, an initiative of Blue Cross and Blue Shield North Carolina and the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund wants to combat obesity and overweight issues facing the state's residents. The program, according to a release, will involve business leaders and human resource managers.

According to the Research Triangle Institute's 2004 obesity study, North Carolina taxpayers pay an estimated $2.1 billion annually for obesity-related medical expenses.

North Carolina Prevention Partners also reported in 2004 that each year obesity-related problems cost North Carolina businesses more than $3,000 per employee. These problems can lead to chronic disease, resulting in absenteeism and escalating health care costs for employers.

To participate, go to www.fittogethernc.org.

[Obesity Discussion]

For those of you in Wayne County, Health Director James Roosen said in
response to concerns about childhood obesity, that Dr. David Tayloe at Goldsboro Pediatrics has requested a registered dietitian.

"As part of a medical instructional therapy project, we will staff a registered dietitian at Goldsboro Pediatrics to see whether or not we can make this a cost neutral program." The search is underway as we speak.