Childhood Obesity Case Study

Introduction

Stop Obesity in Schools Act of 2015 H.R.3772, requires the Department of Health and Human services to reduce childhood obesity by 10% by the year 2020. 17 percent of American children are obese or overweight. This is the equivalent of 12,700,000 children. Obese children are more likely to become obese adults (Rogers et al). This law will accomplish that by developing a national strategy that would address short and long term solutions to the problem of childhood obesity. This law will identify how the federal government can work with entities to implement this strategy while identifying and overcoming existing obstacles. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) must provide matching grants to educational agencies to adopt wellness policies and anti-obesity initiatives, to evaluate existing programs effectiveness and reproducibility, and by establishing and expanding healthy living and wellness councils in elementary and

Healthier foods are more expensive than junk food. According to a Harvard University study, eating healthier cost about $1.50 more per day per person or $550.00 per person per year. Over a lifetime, the medical costs associated with childhood obesity total about $19,000 per child compared with those for a child of normal weight, a new analysis shows. The costs are about $12,900 per person for children of normal weight who become overweight or obese in adulthood, according to the analysis by researchers at the Duke Global Health Institute and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. Medical spending for an obese individual is $1,429 higher per year than for someone of normal weight. The obesity epidemic continues to burden the nation financially, approximately 150 billion dollars a year. Medicare and Medicaid which are supported by taxpayers fund an estimated $60 billion