Med News Today

Bush Administration Kills Only Program Helping Overweight Kids

WASHINGTON - One in five children is predicted to be obese by the end of the decade. But efforts to turn that tide are scattershot and underfunded, and the government killed one of the few programs proven to work, specialists said Wednesday.

Programs that target youngsters’ growing waistlines are sprouting around the country, an encouraging sign that the threat to children’s health is being taken seriously, said the report by the Institute of Medicine.

To reinforce that point, Wednesday’s report spotlighted the government’s VERB campaign, a program once touted as spurring a 30 percent increase in exercise among the preteens it reached. It ended this year with Bush administration budget cuts.

VERB encouraged 9- to 13-year-olds to take part in physical activities, like bike riding or skateboarding. Slick ads, at a cost of $59 million last year, portrayed exercise as cool at an age when outdoor play typically winds down and adolescent slothfulness sets in.

The demise of the program “calls into question the commitment to obesity prevention within government,” the panel concluded.

[Emory University's Dr. Jeffrey] Koplan was more blunt, calling it a waste of taxpayer money to develop a program that works and then dismantle it.

posted by nattietodd @ 8:53 AM