Georgia is making progress in its battle against childhood obesity. Comprehensive, statewide efforts are having a positive influence on children’s health, according to a study assessing the state’s ongoing efforts to curb childhood obesity, published March 15 in the Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association. Various statewide implementation strategies, coordinated under the Georgia Shape Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative, created by Governor Nathan Deal in 2012, are showing positive impact, including:
- Decline in obesity rates for low-income 2- to 4-year old children
- Stabilization of body mass indexes of school-aged children
- Improvement in percentages of boys and girls with increased aerobic capacity
Efforts over the past 20 years to build awareness and take action against youth obesity, physical inactivity and poor nutrition under the umbrella of Georgia Shape, that has the goal of having 69 percent of Georgia’s children achieve a healthy weight range by 2023. The 10-year plan aims to encourage healthy behaviors and to promote individual health through coordinated, statewide policy and system-level efforts by offering resources to educators, health care providers, families, and individuals. This approach targets multiple influences on health and aims to create a coordinated environment for increasing physical activity and improving nutrition.
“Progress in addressing childhood obesity is slow and steady, but it is being accomplished due to a diverse set of stakeholders engaging in a statewide, coordinated effort which, along with creation of the Georgia Shape initiative, contributes to population-based health with regard to childhood obesity and aerobic capacity measures,” writes lead author Debra Kibbe, from the Georgia Health Policy Center. “Within 10-years, these collaborative efforts are expected to reduce the overall prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Georgia.”
In addition to Kibbe, coauthors include Karen Minyard, Ph.D., from the Georgia Health Policy Center along with coauthors Emily Vall, Ph.D., Christine Green, Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D., and Kelly Cornett, from the Georgia Department of Public Health. Click here to read the article.