Getting Moving in the USA- Resolute

Getting Moving in the USA

Michelle Obama recently announced her new national childhood obesity prevention campaign, "Let's Move". The program is not only the first federally mandated program to address this widespread issue, but I think it actually has the potential to be highly effective. The most exciting part of the initiative is that instead of emphasizing government policies, "Let's Move" is focused on a myriad of private and public organizations (i.e. schools, non government organizations, corporations) working together to battle the obesity epidemic.

According to data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the prevalence of obesity has tripled in the past 30 years in children from two to 19 years old. While a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the levels of childhood obesity may be levelling off, the problem is not going away. The rate of obesity in school aged children is reported to be approximately 32 percent, putting them at greater risk for developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, and becoming an obese adult.

While the "Let's Move" campaign will be implemented on a national level, it is very important that efforts be targeted to those groups who are most at risk: the underserved and minority populations in the U.S. From a public health perspective, those are the groups that are most effected by this epidemic and those that need the most help. I hope that when Mrs Obama's team is prioritizing how they plan to implement "Let's Move", they keep these disparities in the forefront of their minds.

Getting Moving in the USA

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