OBESITY PREVENTION A COMMUNITY APPROACH

Simple Messages That Influence Complex Behaviors

• Increase physical activity

• Eat more nutritious food and smaller portions

• Stop smoking

Spheres of InfluenceWe all have influence in

some spheres – or on many spheres.

Individual – your family’s decisions

Social/Organizational– church or organization

leadership Public Policy - serving

on a school/health board or on a state

committee.

INDIVIDUAL

SOCIAL NETWORKS

ORGANIZATIONS

COMMUNITIES

PUBLIC POLICY

Get More Physical Activity

If you had a drug that would improve your

mood, decrease your stress, help you lose

weight, improve almost any health problem

that you already had – would you take it?

Physical Activity:

• Doesn’t have to be hard• Should make your heart beat faster• Should make you breathe deeper• You could talk but not sing• Should be sustained over a period of time – 10

minutes (or more) at a time is the GOAL• Something is better than nothing• Surgeon General’s Recommendations Adults – 30 min. a day, Children – 60 min. a day

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

• Studies show that people who eat a higher number of fruits and vegetables have lower overall body fat

• People on low carb diets can eat vegetables (vs. fruits)

• Fruits and vegetables are nutrient rich foods that have lower calories and fiber

The benefits of stopping smoking are immediate:

•After 20 minutes your heart rate drops.

•After 12 hours, the CO level in your blood drops to normal.

•After 2 weeks to 3 months, your heart attack risk begins to drop and your lung function begins to improve.

•After 1 to 9 months your coughing and shortness of breath decrease.

•After 1 year, your added risk of coronary heart disease is ½ that of a smoker’s.

Support efforts to stop smoking and eliminate secondhand smoke

Support efforts to stop smoking and eliminate secondhand smoke

The benefits of stopping smoking are immediate:

• After 5 years, your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker’s 5-15 years after quitting.

• After 10 years, your lung cancer death rate is about ½ that of a smoker’s and your risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases.

• After 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease is back to that of a nonsmoker’s.

Individual Sphere

• Use non-sedentary ways to be with your family – Frisbee, walking, play games.

• Be physically active on a regular basis. The goal is 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week

• Incorporate “active behaviors,” always take the stairs instead of elevator, park further away, take opportunities to move, take short walks in between meeting. It benefits you – but also influences other people.

Individual Sphere

• Start by replacing snacks with vegetables and fruits – think “nutrient rich”

• Buy fast food like potatoes, salad, grilled chicken – that supports an economy of healthier foods

• Fresh fruits and vegetables are best but frozen or canned are almost equally beneficial

• The more convenient they are to eat, the more we eat them. Prepackaged and salad bar items are more expensive but an easier way to get vegetables and fruits

Individual Sphere

Quit Smoking – Help Others to Quit1-800-QUIT-NOW

• Free, statewide, telephone-based, one-on-one proactive counseling program

• For smokers and non-smokers who’d like to help

• For more information email or call RaeAnne Davis at the KY Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program– RaeAnne.Davis@ky.gov– (502) 564-7996 ext. 3858

Smoke outside – Encourage others to smoke outside

Smoking outside of your car, house, and other buildings:

• increases a smoker’s chances of stopping smoking when they do decide to quit

• Improves the indoor air quality of the air people breath every day

• Improves health of family and friends around you.

Community and Policy Sphere

• Support local school policies that promote physical activity. School can make decisions on a local level to increase the PE requirement.

• Ask legislators to mandate PE back into Kentucky School Program of Studies (State requires only 1 PE class PER WEEK for elementary students).

• Don’t withhold recess as a punishment strategy.

• Incorporate physically active parent/ student programs such as Safe Routes to School.

Community and Policy Sphere

• Encourage the use of the Safe Routes to School $$$ in school districts

• Plan sidewalks into new development, especially around schools and shopping areas.

• Do not support “exemptions” from building sidewalks into new developments. It is much cheaper to build them up front then to retrofit

Community and Policy Level

• New state legislation will require schools to change vending items to lower fat, lower sugar and higher fiber items.

• Advocate for school fund raisers that follow the same guidelines or do not involve food.

• Offer healthy options at concessions and school cafeteria.

Support Clean Indoor Air Ordinances

•Times are changing…–At one point in time, smoking was allowed in such places as airplanes and no one thought twice about it. Doctors were even portrayed in advertisements to encourage patients to smoke for their health. Not anymore.–Everyday, more cities, states, and countries are creating 100% smoke-free environments. The social norms surrounding smoking are changing.

Community and Policy Sphere

•Secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds and at least 60 are known carcinogens.•U.S. EPA labels secondhand smoke as a Class A carcinogen (the same as asbestos).•When Lexington, KY became 100% smoke-free it was written by the Supreme Court of Kentucky that, “…the protection of public health is uniformly recognized as a most important municipal function. ‘It is not only a right but a manifest duty of a city.’”

Tackling Tobacco Makes Sense on an Economic Basis

•Not only does smoking result in loss of health, it contributes to the economic loss of Kentucky.

–Every year, more than 8,000 Kentuckians die from tobacco-related diseases.–Each year, $1.2 billion in Medicaid and Medicare funds is being spent treating Kentuckians for illnesses worsened or caused by tobacco use. In other words, $300 is coming out of the pockets of each of the 4 million people living in KY due to tobacco use.

Community and Policy Sphere

• Every 10% increase in the price of cigarettes, reduces youth smoking by close to 7% and reduces overall consumption by 3%-5%.

• A $0.75 increase in Kentucky’s cigarette excise tax would have significantly decreased youth smoking. Although a $0.27 increase is a step in the right direction, it is not enough.

Spheres of Influence

“First, in addition to reducing tobacco use, we must advocate for public health in other areas, such as obesity…The ball is in your court. The future of health care is in your hands. The question is... Are you ready?”

– John C. Nelson, MD, MPH, President, AMA (West Virginia State Medical Association Healthcare Summit 2004)

INDIVIDUAL

SOCIAL NETWORKS

ORGANIZATIONS

COMMUNITIES

PUBLIC POLICY

Available Through the Kentucky Department of Public Health and

KMA Web sitesExercise Prescription Brochures

Available Through the Kentucky Department of Public Health

and KMA Web sites

Exercise Fact Sheets for People With Chronic Disease and sedentary individuals

AsthmaDiabetesArthritis

High Blood PressureObesity

Available Through the Kentucky Department of Public Health

and/or local Health Department

Find your local health department tobacco coordinator on the handout

• The Cooper/Clayton Method to Stop Smoking13-week support group that meets one-hour per week in MOST Kentucky communitiesNo cost or low-cost (unless nicotine replacement products are used)

• School research-based programsYour local health department can tell you if youth cessation programs are available

Available Through the Kentucky Department of Public Health

Kentucky’s Tobacco Quit Line1-800-QUIT-NOW

Free, statewide, telephone-based, one-on-one proactive counseling programFor smokers and non-smokers who’d like to helpFor more information email or call RaeAnne Davis at the KY Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program

RaeAnne.Davis@ky.gov(502) 564-7996 ext. 3858

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