We Can Take Action Toward Better Health for All Americans Now

John M. Clymer, President
Partnership for Prevention

 

America’s overall health improvement has slowed, and the annual rate of improvement has become smaller in recent years. While there are many reasons our progress is stalling, two are most prominent.  After several years of reductions in the rate of smoking, the rate of smoking has leveled off, and the epidemic of obesity, especially among children, is dramatically increasing.  There is reason for alarm, for today’s smokers will be tomorrow’s patients, and today’s obese youth will be tomorrow’s chronically ill adults, hobbled by arthritis, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  

As always, this edition of America’s Health Rankings^tm is more than simply a report on our collective health status: It is a Call to Action.  With progress slowing alarmingly, we should act now.  Fortunately, we can act now because health science already tells us what we need to do to improve our health. 

We should act because, despite our nation’s considerable progress toward reducing tobacco use since the first Surgeon General’s warning was issued 42 years ago, more than one-fifth of the population still smokes, resulting in 440,000 premature deaths per year. We, as a nation, cannot be satisfied that tobacco use takes the lives of 1,200 Americans per day, especially when we know how to do better.

We should act because poor nutrition and physical inactivity are fueling an epidemic of obesity that is driving diabetes rates up and the age of diabetes onset down. The rise of obesity is offsetting gains that medicine and public health have made against other causes of cancer and heart disease. For the first time in our nation’s history, today’s generation of children may have poorer health than their parents, a decline caused by obesity.  Again, we know how to do better.

We know we should act, and fortunately, we know how to solve these health crises thanks to scientific research that has identified effective policies and practices that work.  We can act with the help of a variety of sources to guide us: 

• The Guide to Community Preventive Services (www.thecommunityguide.org) identifies proven policies, programs and practices to prevent many causes of poor health. It compiles recommendations made by the U.S. Task Force on Community Preventive Services, a blue ribbon panel of experts on disease prevention and health promotion.
   
• The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services (http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/pocketgd.htm) is an authoritative source of preventive services that are proven to prevent disease or its progression. The Guide includes U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening, counseling, and preventive medication that can be administered by physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals.
   
• The Rankings of Clinical Preventive Services (www.prevent.org/ncpp) tell health care professionals, the public, health plans and policymakers the relative health impact and economic value of services in the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services. The Rankings, produced by Partnership for Prevention, are a useful decision-making tool to get the most value from our health care dollars.

Whether you are a policymaker, health care professional, public health official, scholar, employer or interested citizen, you can take effective action today.  I urge you to avail yourself of these tools and stem the tide of disease, disability and death caused by tobacco, poor nutrition, physical inactivity and obesity.

We can take action toward better health for all Americans now.