OBESITY PREVENTION
Obesity has for a long time been viewed as an individual problem where individuals and family take the role of treating and managing obesity. However, the expansion of the obesity epidemic that affects diverse age, ethnic groups and socioeconomic strata in the United States as well as globally. The expansion has led to the development of preventive strategies that can reach the whole population as well as individual communities. Strategies to prevent obesity are both private and government strategies and include a change of policy, organizational practices, health communication, individual counseling as well as a change of practices in healthcare settings. Past and present initiatives to address obesity will be discussed together with the impact of insurance on the health outcome of obesity. What is more, the health outcome of obesity in the United States will be compared to that of another country that has universal healthcare.
The report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that more than one-third of the United States population is obese. This has aggravated medical costs to more than $150 billion power year, and the cost is higher than that of people with normal weight (Chatterji et al., 2015). Obesity prevalence has tripled since in recent decades making it a significant health concern globally. In response to the ongoing obesity problem, both private and public entities are working towards helping people stay active and observe the diet they take. In the year 2013, the Department of Agriculture came up with new policies for snacks in school which ensured that all vending machines and snack bars provided students with healthy foods besides, they funded schools with such machines and healthy foods that could be consumed by students in the same year (Moore, Audrey, Barker, Bond, Bonell, Hardeman & Baird, 2015). Within the same period, Michelle Obama launched a program known as Let’s Move which aimed to bring physical activity back to schools. The program was fully funded to ensure that children and adolescents understand the significance of physical activities to their health.
Presently, a Community Transformation Grant Program that was created by the Affordable Care Act funds all the community-based programs that prevent chronic diseases such as obesity. The program initiates strategies such as healthy eating and active living which will help reduce the level of calories and prevent contracting lifestyle diseases. The program is a public program that is being implemented in federal, state and local level of government. From this program, many other public health programs were funded to facilitate prevention of the global epidemic health problem. Recent grants also support public health campaign, publications, and conference and public-health promotion of physical activities and healthy eating (Chatterji, Green & Kumanyika, 2014).
Past and Present Quality Initiatives
Since the time obesity was declared a public health concern, several initiatives have been initiated by NGOs and government to address the issue. The National Prevention Strategy is working hard to increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every level of life. The strategy seeks to build healthy communities, empower people to make healthy choices, expand preventive services and eliminate all health disparities in the community. The program has been used in the past and is also used currently to curb the rate at which obesity is in the United States population. Community initiatives were also used in the past and are also being used in the current population to advocate for healthy eating and active living among populations. The community initiatives are both public and private focus on hospitals, schools, childhood care, and food services to ensure that all that healthy eating is promoted in those regions. Community efforts also include nutritional standards, water access, walking routes and breastfeeding in the workplace which all aim to reduce the obesity epidemic. Early care and education have also been established by the CDC to prevent childhood obesity in daycares, child care centers, Head Start programs, and kindergartens (Musich et al., 2016). The initiatives under the program promote learning collaboration, nutrition, partnerships, and physical activity standards. Nutritional policies are also enforced in the current populations to institute healthy standards that impact childhood obesity through the laws and regulations set.
Insured VS not insured
Obesity is a health concern that has been a major concern to healthcare organizations since it a contributor to increased chronic conditions which result in higher utilization of medical services. Due to this, individuals who are insured have better health outcome as compared to those not insured because they can access quality health care. Management and treatment of patients with obesity is expensive and require high medical cost; therefore patients with insurance have better health outcome since they can afford quality services from the hospital. Obesity and the related chronic conditions are associated with increased admissions and utilization of other medical services. Orthopedic procedures are common among obese older adults which lead to increased healthcare costs (Musich, MacLeod, Bhattarai, Wang, Hawkins, Bottone Jr, & Yeh, 2016). Also, obese individuals are at risk of developing other medical complications and also likely to have a higher length of stay and post-surgical issues that are associated with increased weight. Due to this, patients who are insured will have better health outcome because the insurance will cater for the medical expenses, making the process more manageable. Those not insured are not guaranteed of quality healthcare, which is the main contribution of high mortality rate among obese individuals.
Health Outcome
Obesity in the United States has been on the rise for the last decade. However, the rates have declined among all the low-income preschool children, an indication that the solution to improve children’s health outcomes is effective. The change can be attributed to universal care coverage that targets low-income families where they are given quality care and promotional strategies to prevent obesity. Obesity in the United States leads to high cost of care and each year, approximately 150 billion dollars is spent on obesity medication with more than 300, 000 premature deaths happening yearly (Musich et al., 2016).
Canada is another country with universal health care which has taken a great role to prevent obesity by setting aside money to cater for the obese. The annual direct healthcare cost has been on the rose in Canada, and it is expected to rise to $8.8 billion by the year 2021 (Bancej, Jayabalasingham, Wall, Rao, Do, De Groh & Jayaraman, 2015). This indicates that the country is willing to prevent and treat obesity cases so that they can improve the health status of the population in the future. The health outcome of obesity in Canada is more improved as compared to that of the United States by far due to initiatives set and the money set aside to cater for obesity cases.
References
Bancej, C., Jayabalasingham, B., Wall, R. W., Rao, D. P., Do, M. T., De Groh, M., & Jayaraman, G. C. (2015). Trends and projections of obesity among Canadians. Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada: research, policy and practice, 35(7), 109.
Chatterji, M., Green, L. W., & Kumanyika, S. (2014). LEAD: A framework for evidence gathering and use for the prevention of obesity and other complex public health problems. Health Education & Behavior, 41(1), 85-99.
Moore, G. F., Audrey, S., Barker, M., Bond, L., Bonell, C., Hardeman, W., … & Baird, J. (2015). Process evaluation of complex interventions: Medical Research Council guidance. bmj, 350, h1258.
Musich, S., MacLeod, S., Bhattarai, G. R., Wang, S. S., Hawkins, K., Bottone Jr, F. G., & Yeh, C. S. (2016). The impact of obesity on health care utilization and expenditures in a medicare supplement population. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 2, 2333721415622004.