State Surgeon General Challenges Nutrition Students
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Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson, M.D., M.P.H., issued a call to arms to UAMS nutrition students to help address the state’s obesity problem.
Sept. 15, 2011 | Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson, M.D., M.P.H., issued a call to arms to UAMS nutrition students to help address the state’s obesity problem.
In a Sept. 8 nutrition seminar hosted by the UAMS Department of Dietetics and Nutrition in the College of Health Related Professions, Thompson pointed to an estimated 30 percent of Arkansans rated obese based on their body mass index (BMI) score, compared to about 16 percent in 1994. Incidences of diabetes, for which obesity raises the risk, have essentially doubled in the state to near 10 percent of the population during the same time period.
“This is the epidemic of the 21st century and you are positioned to be leaders as students in nutrition,” said Thompson, also a UAMS faculty member in the colleges of Medicine and Public Health and director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement. “You are positioned to be the change agents and we need your help.”
Coming health care reform, he said, could create more opportunities for dietitians to help, as insurance coverage is expected to expand and cover more nutrition counseling and preventive health care.
“The field of nutrition is growing quickly as more diseases are linked to obesity and there is a desperate need for nutritionists that can teach prevention and treatment of obesity-related diseases in children and adults,” said Reza Hakkak, Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition.
Since Act 1220 was approved by the state Legislature in 2003, Arkansas has been able to keep closer tabs on obesity rates in the state – particularly childhood obesity. Childhood obesity was a focus since childhood is when eating habits are formed. Also there was a high correlation between obesity in parents and obesity in children, he said.
The law provides authority to push school districts to limit access to sugary snacks in vending machines and cafeterias as well as promote more physical activity. Restaurants must make health information about their food more visible to customers.
While still a growing problem with far-reaching health and societal consequences, childhood obesity rates in Arkansas have shown improvement, Thompson said.
Thompson said the latest BMI report on Arkansas students show the rapid increase in obesity rates has started to slow and turn. Regular evaluations of the law’s impact show increases in physical activity at schools and healthier meal choices.
Now is the time, he said, to “step on the accelerator” and promote additional policies such as replacing more sugar-laden snacks in vending machines at public facilities with healthier choices or providing more funding for non-vehicle transportation modes such as the popular — and recently expanded — Arkansas River Trail that promote physical activity.
Anecdotal evidence suggested the benefits to regular physical activity by students extend beyond their health, Thompson said. One middle school principal told him of a dramatic reduction in behavioral problems at her school after it began requiring physical education.
Thompson traced the obesity problem in part to a decades’ long culture shift in America to a more car-driven, restaurant-dining, sedentary lifestyle. Fewer students walk or ride a bike to school. More families dine out more than twice a week. Locally grown produce is harder to find while higher-calorie foods are everywhere.
Now the financial costs of obesity are becoming more apparent, which could help spur policy action, Thompson said.
A survey of state employees highlighted the average annual health costs of those who were obese ($3,679) versus those who were not obese or had other health risks ($2,382). Health costs increased dramatically as the population aged, topping out at $8,860 for obese adults aged 65-74.
Matching the BMI data to Medicaid claims linked obesity to a range of serious and chronic health problems, from diabetes to asthma to high blood pressure.
He compared the obesity problem to the time that smoking was considered the most serious public health problem. “It took nearly 50 years to turn the corner” so that now there are no smoking sections on airplanes or in many public places.
“We’re at the very start of the obesity problem,” Thompson said. “We all like to eat and we all like to use the TV remote, so we’ve got to put policies in place that make the healthy choice the easy choice.”
The monthly nutrition seminars, held on the second Thursday of each month at 4 p.m., are open to all UAMS faculty and staff and to the public.