Although obesity imposes an enormous burden on our health care system and the economy, the present landscape of coverage for obesity care is piecemeal. Our fragmented healthcare system makes it difficult to know what care is available and how much it costs.
Article Archive
This month's newsletter is written by guest authors Ms. Caitlin P. Bailey and Dr. Melissa A. Napolitano. Ms. Bailey is a PhD student in the Department of Prevention and Community Health. Dr.
The Roundtable on Obesity Solutions, established by the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) in 2014, followed 8 years of the IOM’s engagement with obesity. In 2005, the IOM conducted the first consensus study of obesity, entitled “Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance”, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
A recent updated guidance sent to health insurance carriers that administer the Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) has clarified that “carriers are not allowed to exclude anti-obesity medications from coverage based on a benefit exclusion or a carve out." This guidance is encouraging and should help in our efforts to increase the number of health insurance plans that cover anti-obesity medications (AOMs).
It is widely accepted that early childhood is a critical period that can set the trajectory of weight and metabolic health for the rest of a child’s lifetime – but a growing body of research is looking even further back in time for predict
The STOP Obesity Alliance is proud to be a founding partner of the 8th annual Obesity Care Week, which starts today and runs through Friday, March 5th.
This month's newsletter is written by guest author Dr. Rebecca Puhl. Dr. Puhl is Deputy Director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity and Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The University of Connecticut. She is responsible for identifying and coordinating research and policy efforts aimed at reducing weight bias.
In this month's newsletter, we examine the relationship between ultra-processed foods and endocrine disrupting chemicals and explore how they may contribute to obesity.
Ultra-processed Foods and Obesity
November is National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) make up 1.7% of the total U.S. population.
Despite the promise of increasingly effective pharmacotherapy for obesity, the rate of prescriptions for weight-loss medications in the US is surprisingly low. A study of over 2.2 million adults from 2009 to 2015 found that the rates of rates of prescriptions for anti-obesity medications (AOMs) ranged from 0.6% to 2.9% of eligible patients. The study results also demonstrated an uneven distribution of these prescriptions.
September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. The obesity rate among U.S. youth has steadily increased since the 1990s.
This month's newsletter is written by guest author Sydney Pryor. Sydney is currently a second year PhD student in the Department of Health Policy and Management at The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health where she is also a Graduate Fellow for the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness.
As the United States begins to wind down from the worst parts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can begin to take stock of the effects that obesity has had on the outcomes of COVID-19 and the effects of COVID-19 on the prevalence of obesity. In this month’s newsletter, we review what we have learned about both of these impacts.
Effects of Obesity on COVID-19 Outcomes
This month's newsletter is written by guest author Amelia Corl. Amelia recently graduated from The George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health and is a Research Assistant with the STOP Obesity Alliance. This article was written as a component of the author’s Culminating Experience project titled “A Messaging Framework for Obesity.”
Last year for Mental Health Awareness Month we discussed the intersections of mental health, obesity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, we were focused on the ways lockdowns were affecting mental health.