MedPage Today
By Emily P. Walker
July 24, 2008
Congress has been given some advice from the state of Arkansas on how to stem the national epidemic of childhood obesity.
In a hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families, Joseph Thompson, M.D., Arkansas' surgeon general, passed along some of the tactics he and colleagues have used to halt the rise of childhood obesity rates in that state.
Dr. Thompson shared with the panel how Arkansas used school-based programs to lessen childhood obesity in the state -- which often ranks in the bottom tier of the least healthy states in the nation.
In 2003, state legislation created a childhood obesity prevention program that established physical activity requirements, increased access to healthy foods in schools, and mandated issuing confidential body mass index report cards for all public school children.
"We've done everything we can think of at the state level," Thompson said. "We need the help of Congress and local governments to do more."