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A
study recently released by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that deaths due
to poor diet and physical inactivity rose by 33 percent over the
past decade and may soon overtake tobacco as the leading preventable
cause of death.
"Americans need to understand that
overweight and obesity are literally killing us," Thompson said. "To
know that poor eating habits and inactivity are on the verge of
surpassing tobacco use as the leading cause of preventable death in
America should motivate all Americans to take action to protect
their health. We need to tackle America's weight issues as
aggressively as we are addressing smoking and tobacco."
Thompson said the new advertising
campaign from the HHS and Ad Council educates Americans that they
can take small, achievable steps to improve their health and reverse
the obesity epidemic. Consumers don't need to go to extremes, such
as joining a gym or taking part in the latest diet plan, to make
improvements in their health. But they do need to get active and eat
healthier, he said.
"America needs to get healthier one
small step at a time," Thompson said. "Each small step does make a
difference, whether it's taking the stairs instead of an elevator or
snacking on fruits and vegetables. The more small steps we can take,
the further down the road we will be toward better health for
ourselves and our families."
The release of the new education
campaign and the new research agenda coincided with publication of
the CDC study in the
March 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association. The study, "Actual Causes of Death in the United
States, 2000," finds that 400,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2000 (17
percent of all deaths) were related to poor diet and physical
inactivity. Only tobacco use caused more deaths (435,000). And while
most of the major preventable causes of death showed declines or
little change since 1990, deaths due to poor diet and physical
inactivity increased 33 percent. "Poor diet and physical inactivity
may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of death," the study
concludes..
Thompson called on individuals to
maintain a healthy weight and help stem the rise in preventable
death attributed to obesity and inactivity. He also called on
corporations, communities and others to join in a national
cooperative effort to increase awareness of the problem and help
individuals access healthy foods and opportunities for healthy
physical activity.
"The fact that more than a third of
deaths in America each year are related to smoking, poor eating
habits and physical inactivity is both tragic and unacceptable,
because these are largely preventable behaviors," said CDC Director
Julie Gerberding, M.D. "Investments in programs to increase physical
activity, improve diet and increase smoking cessation are more
important than ever before and must continue to be high priorities."
An estimated 129.6 million Americans,
or 64 percent, are overweight or obese. Obesity and overweight have
been shown to increase the risk for developing type 2 diabetes,
heart disease, some forms of cancer and other disabling medical
conditions. The total direct and indirect costs, including medical
costs and lost productivity, were estimated at $117 billion
nationally for 2000, according to the
"2001
Surgeon General's Call to Action on Prevent and Decrease Overweight
and Obesity."
Thompson unveiled an innovative public
awareness and education campaign, entitled Healthy Lifestyles &
Disease Prevention, which encourages American families to take
small, manageable steps within their current lifestyle -- versus
drastic changes -- to ensure effective, long-term weight control.
The Healthy Lifestyles & Disease
Prevention initiative -- which includes multimedia public service
advertisements and a new interactive Internet site,
www.smallstep.gov --
encourages Americans to make small activity and dietary changes,
such as using stairs instead of an elevator, or taking a walk
instead of watching television.
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The public service advertisements were
developed for HHS in cooperation with the Ad Council. Designed for
all media, they provide tongue-in-cheek examples of the power of
small steps for long-term, sustained weight control and good health.
The PSAs, created pro bono by New York agency McCann Erickson
through the Ad Council, show typical Americans finding "love
handles," double chins and other unwanted body parts in public
places, apparently "lost," as their neighbors used the stairs
instead of the escalator, got active at the beach or walked to the
office. The advertisements will run and air in advertising time and
space that is donated by the media. They are available at
http://www.adcouncil.org/
campaigns/healthy_lifestyles.
"Our research has shown that many
Americans believe that they need to make drastic changes in their
lifestyles to get healthy," according to Peggy Conlon, president and
CEO of the Ad Council. "This innovative, clever advertising shows
how small steps can go a long way."
The companion Internet site, by
communications firm Carton Donofrio Partners Inc., will provide
information for Americans to incorporate the small steps into their
routines.
"We know that gloom and doom messages
warning against weight gain don't work," Thompson said. "These
messages are provocative and attention-getting -- but they are also
empowering and achievable."
Secretary Thompson also announced that
the National Institutes of Health is developing a strategic plan for
obesity research. The strategy will intensify research to better
understand, prevent and treat obesity through:
The
draft strategic plan, available at
http://obesityresearch.nih.gov, is open for public comment until
April 2. It was developed by a task force established by NIH
Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., last spring.
"The NIH Task Force on Obesity Research
has developed a dynamic strategy that coordinates the stimulus for
funding obesity research across 25 institutes, centers and offices
at NIH," Dr. Zerhouni said. "There is no single cause of all human
obesity, so we must explore prevention and treatment approaches that
encompass many aspects, such as behavioral, sociocultural,
socioeconomic, environmental, physiologic and genetic factors. NIH
can greatly expand scientific knowledge of this complex and
multifaceted disorder."
Current year NIH funding for obesity
research is $400.1 million, up from $378.6 million in fiscal 2003.
The budget request for fiscal 2005 is $440.3 million, a 10 percent
increase from the current year.
The
Department of Health and Human Services has long spearheaded
initiatives to motivate Americans of all ages to become more active
and learn more about healthy living. The Healthy Lifestyles &
Disease Prevention campaign will now coalesce health organizations,
media, athletic organizations and others to join in promoting
healthier lifestyles. Already partnering in the public education
campaign are such varied organizations as Lifetime Television,
Sesame Workshop, and the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable
Association. Additional partners will be added as the campaign
continues.
[U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services
news release]
Editor's note: Statistics from
the CDC study on actual causes of death are available at
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/
media/pressrel/fs040309.htm.
Details of
the CDC's efforts to reduce the impact of these actual causes of
death are available at
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/
media/pressrel/fs040309b.htm.
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