HCS 535
July 23, 2012
Dr. Beth Hale
Health Campaign- Part One
Obesity is a chronic condition that has grown in epidemic proportions over the years. Obesity is defined as the body weight which is excessive than expected in healthy individuals and presently in the United States, obesity has become of the greatest public health challenges. It is reported that 2.8 million adults will die in the world because of obesity (World Health Organization, 2012). This paper will present obesity and the initiative of Healthy People 2020 to combat this health issue. It will present the federal, state, and local agencies tasked with addressing and managing this issue. It will present models used to determine and analyze obesity, define the community and targeted populations and describe the epidemiologic surveillance systems used for monitoring obesity. It will present epidemiology tools, such as risk assessment and trends in disease and health to analyze obesity.
Obesity in America
In the United States obesity rates have escalated to higher levels than ever seen before. At this time one-third of all adults in the United States are classified as obese (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). The national identified health objectives developed by the federal government is Healthy People. These initiatives began in 2000 and were updated in 2010 and 2020. Healthy People 2000 were developed in 1990 by the Department of Human and Health Services as a strategy to improve the health of Americans (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). The first two priority areas identified were physical fitness and nutrition. The Healthy People objectives were rereleased in 2010 with additional priority objectives. The goals of this objectives was similar to the one in 2000 but truly focusing on reducing health disparities and to increase the quality and years of healthy life (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). This
References: Center of Disease Control and Prevention. (2009, Fall). Healthy people 2000. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/healthy_people/hp2000.htm Center of Disease Control and Prevention. (2012, Spring). Overweight and Obesity. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html/ Center of Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). The National Vital Statistics System. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss.htm Department of Human and Health Services. (2010). HHS announces the nation’s new health promotion and disease prevention agenda. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/DefaultPressRelease.pdf Department of Human and Health Services. (2012). HealthyPeople.Gov. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/default.aspx World Health Organization. (2012). Obesity and overweight. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html