Grant to help
Health Dept. fight childhood obesity
By Scott Nicholson
The Watauga County Health Department’s Appalachian
District is getting a healthy serving of grant money to fight
childhood obesity.
The department has been selected for a $475,000 grant to prevent
childhood obesity, counting on a partnership to further education
and spread programs throughout the community.
Money will be used to promote the “Eat Smart Move More”
campaign based on seven different messages: “Prepare and
Eat More Meals at Home,” “Re-Think Your Drink,”
“Move More,” “Breastfeed Your Baby,” “
Tame the Tube,” “Right-Size Your Portions” and
“Enjoy More Fruits and Veggies.”
The media campaign will begin in October and continue through
May 2009. The campaign will focus heavily at targeting women aged
25 to 64, who represent a third of the local population and often
have families. The campaign will aim to promote making more healthy
meals at home to reduce fast-food meals and trim the “supersizing.”
Jennifer Bryan Greene, health promotion coordinator for the Appalachian
District Health Department, said, “We’re going to look
at the whole community and offer support for obesity-prevention
efforts for both children and adults in Watauga County. We’re
going to be partnering with a lot of people to make it happen.”
Among the partners are Watauga Medical Center, Appalachian State
University, the Wellness Center, Healthy Carolinians and the N.C.
Cooperative Extension Service.
“We’re appreciative to Sen. (Steve) Goss and Rep. (Cullie)
Tarleton to support efforts for this opportunity,” Greene
said. “We have a lot of components to the grant. We’re
going to work with the hospital on work-site wellness, the media,
the school system, the university on a lot of components, and
we’re giving an opportunity for local churches to work with
us.”
Greene said the media and educational campaigns would seek to
reach across the county.
“What we’re looking at is every possible community segment
and promoting healthy eating and preventing obesity,” Greene
said, hoping the grants will be recurring so the program can spread
across the state and fight a major health problem.
“We know that our community health assessment shows that
obesity and childhood obesity is a major issue,” Greene said.
“Obesity is linked to a number of diseases, including diabetes
and heart disease, and those rank pretty high in our area,”
Greene said.
“We’re not unlike any other area of the state or the
nation.”
In the Appalachian Health District, which also includes Ashe,
Alleghany and Wilkes counties, 25 percent of adults are obese
and 40 percent are overweight. In Watauga County, nearly 26 percent
of children ages 5 to 11 are overweight and another 18 percent
are at risk of becoming overweight.
Those figures emerged from a 2006 community health survey that
measured behavioral factors.
A 2006 assessment for Eat Smart Move More showed county residents
are most likely to drink eight or more glasses of cola per year,
or the equivalent of 18 pounds’ worth of calories and weight
gain. They cite a lack of time as the biggest limiting factor
in their sedentary lifestyles.
In North Carolina, 74 percent of children aren’t eating enough
recommended vegetable servings and 37 percent aren’t eating
enough recommended fruit servings.
Additionally, 27 percent aren’t getting the recommended amount
of physical activity.
Greene hopes the grant will help change that trend, starting with
those who are already tipping the scales toward an unhealthy adulthood.
“One of the really interesting pieces we’re going to
be doing is tying in with the WakeMED Energize program at the
Wellness Center that’s shown to be effective for middle-school
to high-school-aged students,” Greene said of a joint effort
with ASU and the medical center. It will target 20 students at
risk of obesity and focus on nutrition and fitness.
“We’re going to do a lot in a little bit of time, Green
said of the nine-month campaign. “We’re real excited.”
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