We are an unfit nation in the midst of a weight and health crisis. Despite revolutionary advances in medicine, poor health and chronic disease are increasingly prevalent in America, even among young children. Fortunately, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has given us unprecedented resources to devote to disease prevention. Unfortunately, in this budget-slashing environment, some have taken dead aim at slashing prevention funds.
For most of our history, Nemours, which operates the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and has clinical operations in four states, took the traditional view of prevention. We focused on the doctor's office as the place to improve the health of children. However, as childhood obesity and related serious health issues reached crisis proportions, we realized that the clinical setting alone would not be enough. To give children every opportunity to grow up healthy, we established Nemours Health & Prevention Services (NHPS), and began working at the population level.
For the past seven years, NHPS has invested in community-based prevention, with a focus on reducing the prevalence of obesity for all children in Delaware, not just those we treat as health care providers. We have worked with hundreds of public and private partners to create healthy environments in all the places where Delaware’s children live, learn and play: schools, child care, primary care and community-based settings. We knew that to make the greatest difference, we needed a surround-sound approach, community buy-in to ensure sustainability, and measurable results.
From 2006 – 2008, we found that childhood obesity rates leveled off in Delaware. This is encouraging since obesity rates had previously been on a steady uphill trajectory. We’ve also seen an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption and a reduction in the amount of time kids spend in front of screens. The strong alliances we forged with state and local government, nonprofits, child care centers and school districts helped us reach a majority of the state's children and get good results.
In Delaware, our investment in community-based prevention has been effective, yet we have just scratched the surface. We still live in the most overweight nation in the history of the world. Among Delaware’s children aged 2-18, about 37 percent are still overweight or obese. We have a long way to go if we are going to reverse the trends that got us to this unhealthy state.
To that end, the ACA created the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a funding stream whose purpose is to support clinical and community-based prevention and public health strategies. The Prevention and Public Health Fund affords our country the opportunity to build upon the type of work we have done in Delaware by expanding the investment in community-based prevention nationwide. What is at stake is not just the health of children today, but the health of America tomorrow. The modern epidemics we face have life-long consequences and present significant costs to the economy. Our failure to ensure that children reach their full health potential may jeopardize our ability as a nation to remain strong and competitive in our global society.
This week the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund. If we repeal this Fund before we give it a chance to work, we are turning the clock back for our children instead of offering them a better future. Every prevention dollar, invested wisely, will bring enormous returns.
We at Nemours understand that the time to act is now. Fighting the epidemic of childhood obesity and its lifelong consequences takes a sustained investment. Despite an unstable economy, Nemours has made and sustained that investment in Delaware. The time has come for the U.S. government to step up and do its part. Tough times call for tough budgetary choices, but eliminating prevention funding is not fiscally or morally sound.