|
Overweight and Obesity
Obesity and overweight are the result of poor nutrition or over eating, and physical inactivity and are related to a host of debilitating health problems.
Why Is This Important?
Poor nutrition and physical inactivity together are the second leading preventable causes of death in the United States. Only tobacco kills more. Overweight and its causes are causally related to a variety of chronic diseases and conditions, including adult-onset diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis and some cancers.
How Is Florida Doing?
Florida is the 10th heaviest state in the nation. As of 2008, the proportion of Florida adults who are overweight or obese has increased by 29 percent over the last 15 years, from 47 percent to 60 percent. The pattern parallels the nationwide increase.
Overweight among high school students was not tracked until 1999 nationally and until 2001 in Florida. The magnitude of the problem is similar between Florida and the rest of the nation, although the national rate has inched up by about 20 percent, compared to a small overall increase among Florida teens. Florida had a significantly lower prevalence of obesity than the nation in 2005 and 2007.
Scorecard
What Influences Overweight and Obesity?
Body weight is the result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, and culture. Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance that involves eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity. Behaviors including poor nutrition, environment, and misinformation play a large role in causing people to be overweight and obese. These are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment actions.
What Is the State's Role?
States can play an important role. They can accentuate the obesity epidemic's health burden and financial costs, develop a comprehensive approach through which policy and environmental change strategies are developed and implemented at both the state and community level.
Working with the private sector, states can encourage businesses to implement Employee Wellness Programs and encourage the insurance industry to support wellness activities aimed at reducing overweight and obesity.
It is important to emphasize that while personal responsibility is critical to adopting and sustaining healthy behaviors, individual behavior change will not work in isolation. Florida believes that obesity is not only a matter of a personal responsibility issue, but also is a matter of public policy.
For More Information
|
