[Akroncooperative-news] Obesity in America and Community-driven programs

[Lawrence Parker]

Note in particular what I've highlighted in red.  This obviously speaks to our community gardens and to the Farm-to-Schools program we're looking at with Crown Point.

Mississippi's still fattest but Alabama closing in
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer  2 hrs 38 mins ago 

WASHINGTON
– Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling
toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers.
It's
time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly
lean Colorado, there's little good news. Obesity rates among adults
rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere, says
a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
And
while the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the
boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just
age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity
is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds — the oldest boomers — than among
today's 65-and-beyond.
That translates into a coming jump of obese Medicare patients that ranges from 5.2 percent in New York to a high of 16.3 percent in Alabama, the report concluded. In Alabama, nearly 39 percent of the oldest boomers are obese.
Health
economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese
would save money by dying sooner, notes Jeff Levi, executive director
of the Trust, a nonprofit public health group.
But more recent research instead suggests they live nearly as long but
are much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Studies show Medicare spends anywhere
from $1,400 to $6,000 more annually on health care for an obese senior
than for the non-obese.
"There isn't a magic bullet. We don't have a pill for it," said Levi, whose group is pushing for health reform legislation to include community-level programs that help people make healthier
choices — like building sidewalks so people can walk their
neighborhoods instead of drive, and providing healthier school lunches.
"It's not going to be solved in the doctor's office but in the community, where we change norms," Levi said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long said that nearly a third of Americans are obese. The Trust
report uses somewhat more conservative CDC surveys for a closer
state-by-state look. Among the findings:
_Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity, 32.5 percent, for the fifth year in a row.
_Three
additional states now have adult obesity rates above 30 percent,
including Alabama, 31.2 percent; West Virginia, 31.1 percent; and
Tennessee, 30.2 percent.
_Colorado had
the lowest rate of obese adults, at 18.9 percent, followed by
Massachusetts, 21.2 percent; and Connecticut, 21.3 percent.
_Mississippi also had the highest rate of overweight and obese children, at 44.4 percent.. It's followed by Arkansas, 37.5 percent; and Georgia, 37.3 percent.
_Following Alabama, Michigan ranks No. 2 with the most obese 55- to 64-year-olds, 36 percent. Colorado has the lowest rate, 21.8 percent.
___
On the Net:
Trust for America's Health: http://healthyamericans.org/
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: http://www.rwjf.org/


      
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