Top recommendation for obesity: Improve community design
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences recently published Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention, a major study. The recommendations are wide ranging, but the first one focuses on the built environment. “Communities, organizations, community planners, and public health professionals should encourage physical activity by enhancing the physical and built environment, rethinking community design, and ensuring access to places for such activity.” One third of US adults are now obese, and more disturbingly, the prevalence of obesity among children has risen from 5 to 17 percent in the last 30 years. Estimated annual cost of obesity-related illness for 2000-2005 is $190.2 billion (in 2005 dollars), or nearly 21 percent of annual medical spending in the US. See the June BCT issue.
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