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“Viewpoints” | A Crucial Tool in Fighting Childhood Obesity: Monitoring Body Mass Index

By: Ron Kind

It’s no secret that childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of obese children has tripled since 1980, with 16 percent of children classified as overweight or obese. That is more than 9 million 6-19-year old children who are susceptible to chronic, debilitating diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The epidemic drains our health care system, costing $147 billion last year alone. And for the first time, today’s youth are not expected to live as long as their ...

“Viewpoints” | Give High School Students Healthy Transportation Choices, Too

By: Earl Blumenauer

We all recognize the signs of a livable community: people biking and kids walking safely around their neighborhoods. These are important forms of commuting that also contribute to a community’s vitality. This is especially true for children, who should be able to securely walk and bike to their most important destinations: schools, parks, and their friends’ homes. Fortunately, the federal government has recognized the importance of providing our children with safe and convenient ways to walk and bike to school. In 2005, building on the success of the Safe Routes ...

Should Farming Be the Model for Health Care’s Future?

By: Stanley Chin, Paul Hughes-Cromwick

Is health care really like farming? In an article in The New Yorker (“Testing, Testing: The health-care bill has no master plan for curbing costs. Is that a bad thing?” December 14, 2009) by Dr. Atul Gawande made the case that, for all their apparent differences, there may be key similarities. Dr. Gawande is a brilliant writer and thinker who has strongly influenced the health care debate by highlighting regional variation in cost and quality, the value of simple check-lists in hospitals (especially in Intensive Care Units), ...