The High Obesity Program: A Collaboration Between Public Health and Cooperative Extension Services to Address Obesity

• Published in: Preventing chronic disease Vol. 17; p. E26
• Main Authors: Kahin, Sahra A, Murriel, Ashleigh L, Pejavara, Anu, O'Toole, Terrence, Petersen, Ruth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 19.03.2020
• Subjects: Agreements; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S; Chronic illnesses; Collaboration; Community; Diet, Healthy; Disease control; Disease prevention; Exercise; Focus groups; Food; Funding; Health care; Health Promotion - organization & administration; Humans; Initiatives; Intervention; Nutrition; Obesity; Obesity - economics; Obesity - prevention & control; Public Health; Rural areas; Rural Population; United States; Volunteers; United States; Alabama; United States > US
• ISSN: 1545-1151; 1545-1151
• DOI: 10.5888/pcd17.190283

Interventions that use policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches at the population level, such as increasing the availability of healthy foods in local corner stores or incorporating activity-friendly routes into community planning and design, can expand the reach of public health efforts by establishing frameworks in which the simple, default choices are the healthier choices in the places Americans work, live, and play (2). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is committed to improving the health of Americans through evidence-based public health programs; the agency supports these programs through funding mechanisms called cooperative agreements that are awarded to state and local public health entities. The program was a result of congressional funding authorization for land-grant universities (LGUs) to work with the US Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Services (CES) to launch an outreach program to combat obesity where obesity rates are the highest. The collection provides examples of community interventions that aim to increase the healthfulness of food and access to physical activity, such as improving healthy food options in retail outlets (7), creating opportunities for physical activity through local organizations (5), and collaborating with nontraditional public health partners, such as CES (4–10).