Center for Health Transformation Georgia Project

Majority of Americans Still Either Overweight or Obese but More Americans are Now Normal Weight than Overweight

According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a daily assessment of U.S. residents' health and well-being, the percentage of Americans who are at a normal weight is higher than those who are overweight — that's not counting those who are recognized as obese.  The study divides participants into three groups: those at a normal weight, those overweight and those who are obese and follows the trends. 

The latest index report shows that 36.6 percent of Americans are at a normal weight, 35.8 percent are overweight and 25.8 percent are categorized as obese.  The overweight and normal weight trend lines have tracked closely together since Gallup and Healthways started daily monitoring of Americans' weight situation in January 2008. The recent slight decline in the nation's obesity rate is a positive contrast to the rising levels found in 2009 and throughout most of 2010.

Black Americans, the middle-aged, and those with low incomes remain the most likely to be obese across major demographic subgroups in all three quarters of 2011.  Although the majority of Americans are still overweight or obese (61.6%), it is an encouraging sign that obesity rates are trending downward in the U.S. and among demographic subgroups. Future monitoring, however, is needed to determine whether this is a temporary trend.

Spanish Version of the MyPlate Icon

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month [Sept. 15 and runs through Oct. 15] the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced a Spanish version of the MyPlate icon. 

From the CDC Fact Sheet 'Prevalence of Diabetes among Hispanics In Six U.S. Geographic Locations:'
Diabetes disproportionately affects Hispanics in the United States. Where Hispanics reside may be a key factor in how diabetes impacts their lives. Differences in access to quality health care, social and cultural factors, or the genetic makeup of the Hispanic population in a specific area may explain disparities in diabetes prevalence. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a study to examine the prevalence of diabetes among Hispanics in six U.S. geographical areas from 1998 to 2002.
Key Findings

• Among U.S. regions with the greatest proportion of Hispanic residents—California, Florida, Illinois, New York/New Jersey, Texas, and Puerto Rico—the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among adults18 and older was 7.4 percent.
• Prevalence of diabetes among Hispanics varied by region from 6.2 percent in Illinois and New York/New Jersey to 9.3 percent in Puerto Rico.
• Diabetes tends to strike Hispanics at younger ages than the non-Hispanic white population. California had the highest rate of diabetes among younger Hispanics. Among adults aged 18 to 44 years, 3.2 percent of Hispanics had diagnosed diabetes compared with 1.3 percent of non-Hispanic whites in that age group.
• The Hispanic population in the United States is younger the non-Hispanic population. When accounting for the different age distributions, the overall prevalence of diabetes among Hispanics was almost twice that of non-Hispanic whites (9.8 percent vs. 5.0 percent).  
• In all geographic areas, diabetes rates increased with age. Illinois had the highest rates among middle-aged adults aged 45-54 years (15.9 percent vs. 4.6 percent) and among adults aged 65 years and older (25.8 percent vs.15.0 percent)
• Prevalence of diabetes decreased with higher education levels. Among Hispanics with less than a high school education, 11.8 percent had diabetes compared to 7.0 percent of college graduates.

HHS Awards Over $103 Million through Community Transformation Grants Program

On Tuesday of this week the Department of Health and Human Services awarded more than $103 million through its Community Transformation Grants program, which was established by the 2010 health law. A total of 61 groups as well as state and local government agencies, spread across 36 states and one territory, will receive funding to promote healthy living and prevention locally over the next five years.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden said the transformation grants will “do exactly what the name says: change the way communities promote health.” Project managers at the CDC will work with individual grantees now through early 2012 to finalize their plans.

Go Chicago!

Kudos to the Chicago Park District!  The Chicago Park District and partners recently unveiled vending machines stocked only with healthy snacks.  New nutritional standards for the snacks in the vending  machine include limitations on calories, sodium, fat and sugar per serving. 

The healthy vending policy stemmed from the wellness center programs that are offered at six parks citywide. The programs are completely privately funded through the Abbott Fund, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Bank of America and Wal-Mart Foundation. The wellness centers offer programs and amenities for the whole family to get active and learn about overall health and well being.

The healthy vending policy states that all foods served at Chicago Park District functions must meet certain nutritional requirements. Both park staff and patrons are being educated on this policy change and Information will be distributed and posted at every Chicago Park District location.  The Park District is composed of 588 parks.  Way to go Chicago!

Iowa Healthiest State Initiative

All Iowa communities can take the first step to becoming Blue Zones Communities! Ten communities that demonstrate the greatest passion, interest and ability to bring their community together will receive assistance from national experts to develop and implement a blueprint for making permanent environment, policy and social network changes that transition people into healthier behaviors. These communities will become demonstration sites and share their learnings with other communities in Iowa who are employing Blue Zones principles. Businesses will also take the lead by transforming their worksites, followed by government, schools and non-profit organizations. The communities will be selected in February 2012.

The progress of the communities will be measured using the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index®, the first-ever daily assessment of U.S. residents’ health and well-being.   Data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index reveals there is significant opportunity in Iowa for improvement, particularly among healthy behaviors and work environments.  The Blue Zones Project will help employers and communities achieve greater well-being, which should lead to lower healthcare costs, higher productivity and increased economic viability.  Be on the lookout for more posts on Iowa as the initiative progresses!

 

Healthy Community Initiatives to Watch

Kaiser Permanente Heal Zones:

The HEAL Zone communities of Bayview in San Francisco, Madera in the Fresno area, Modesto, the Monument Corridor in Concord, Richmond, Santa Rosa and South Sacramento were awarded grants as part of Kaiser Permanente’s new $10 million HEAL Zones initiative to combat obesity across Northern California.The vision of the HEAL Zones is that at the end of the three-year initiative communities will be measurably transformed so that opportunities for engaging in healthy behaviors are part of daily life.

The HEAL Zones are a continuation of Kaiser Permanente’s Healthy Eating Active Living [HEAL] Community Health Initiative, a five-year initiative started in 2006 that empowered communities to promote healthy eating and active living through policy and environmental change.   Based on the importance of place, the HEAL work resulted in increased physical activity, greater availability of healthy food in corner stores, and improvements in local parks and safe walkways.  However, a major learning from the HEAL Initiative was that a greater impact could be made by concentrating the efforts in smaller, more targeted areas.  The HEAL Zones will focus on low-income communities where some of the highest obesity rates occur.  Changes will be made at the local level — where people live, work and play.

Each HEAL Zone will focus on four specific goals over the next three years:

• Decrease calorie consumption, especially sugar-sweetened beverages
• Increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables
• Increase physical activity in community settings, such as parks and safe routes for walking and biking
• Increase physical activity in institutional settings, such as schools and workplaces

Healthy Pasadena

In order to improve the health of communities we need to have access to data that helps show where improvement is needed and where things are working.  Managing by these metrics is key to successful community based programs. Huntington Memorial Hospital has become the first hospital in the country to partner with Healthy Communities Institute (HCI) in offering a one-stop, online source of publicly available data about community health. Healthy Pasadena (www.healthypasadena.org) is designed to help community members and policy makers learn about health-related issues and local resources.  Check out this site to get ideas for your community.  The information can be sorted by topic and by status [using a red/yellow/green meter].  Having data like this available is helpful to community initiatives in prioritizing their initiatives as well as in measuring the effectiveness of their interventions.  Congratulations to Huntington Memorial Hospital for providing this service to their community.

Healthier Holidays

I noticed an interesting trend in reviewing data on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index website.  Healthy behaviors begin to decrease in September and continue to decrease through December with an upward trend beginning in January.  The trend was seen in 2008 and 2009 data.  It will be interesting to see if the trend holds true in 2010.  It seems that holidays trigger unhealthy behaviors - over eating, eating foods high in fat and sugar, decreased exercise - followed by New Year resolutions that start a period of healthier behavior.

The data made me think about ways to have healthier holidays.  With Halloween coming up this weekend and Thanksgiving later in November, the challenge is to have celebrations that support a healthy lifestyle.  Cutting out some of the sugar in the Halloween treats [and the volume of treats] is certainly a place to start. 

Using less fat and sugar in preparing Thanksgiving dinner and  following  dinner with a family walk around the neighborhood would be a good tradition to start in 2010.  Small changes can have big results.  Would love to hear your suggestions for healthier holidays!

Schoolyard Gardens – What a Great Idea!

An article at StarTribune.com discusses the impact of a schoolyard garden in Columbia Heights, MN.  The garden is one of 30 or so new school gardens that have been created in Minnesota during the past year - double the number of such plots that existed previously.  The new gardens are a result of the $47 million State Health Improvement Program [SHIP] that offers grant money to school districts and other community organizations to fight chronic disease, encourage exercise, promote healthy eating and discourage tobacco use.  

SHIP was signed into law by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2008.  The program allows local citizens to choose their own route toward a healthier community. Columbia Heights chose to build a garden classroom. About $20,000 or so of the $63,000 SHIP grant has already been used to buy the plants and install the infrastructure; the remainder will mostly be used to train classroom teachers on how to incorporate the garden into their lesson plans.  

What a great start to the school year.  This is an excellent way to get children physically active, learning about healthy foods, and engaged in their community.  Congratulations to Columbia Heights!

CDC Report - Obesity Prevalence Continues to Increase

According to a CDC Vital Signs report, the number of states with an obesity prevalence of 30 percent or more has tripled in two years to nine states in 2009. Obesity is defined as a body mass index [BMI] greater than 30.  These nine states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia.  In 2000, no state had an obesity prevalence of 30 percent or more. The report, "State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults – United States, 2009," also finds no state met the nation's Healthy People 2010 goal to lower obesity prevalence to 15 percent.  Colorado had the lowest obesity rat at 18.6%.