State Category: Mississippi

TFAH Applauds USDA’s Announcement of New Standards Improving Nutrition in School Meals

Actions will Help Address Youth Obesity Crisis

(Washington, DC – February 7, 2022) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent announcement that the agency will update school meal nutrition standards will help ensure more nutritious school meals for millions of children and adolescents and is an important step toward reversing the nation’s alarming rates of childhood obesity.

The Department announced a stepwise approach, beginning in the next school year. Among the most critical changes are:

  • Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, requiring that schools and child-care providers serving children ages six and older offer low-fat, flavored milk, nonfat flavored milk, or nonfat or low-fat unflavored milk.
  • Requiring that 80 percent of the grains served in school meals each week are rich in whole grains, beginning with the 2022-2023 school year.
  • Requiring a 10 percent decrease in weekly sodium levels in school meals starting with the 2023-2024 school year.
  • Beginning the process for more permanent nutrition standards for the 2024-2025 school year.

Importantly, these changes will return nutritional standards for school meals to 2012 levels, which have been found to have dramatically increased the quality of students’ nutrition.

Rising obesity rates are a serious problem among children and adolescents nationwide. According to the latest available data, nearly 20 percent (19.3 percent) of U.S. children ages 2 to 19 have obesity. These data more than tripled since the mid-1970s and Black and Latino youth have substantially higher rates of obesity than do their white peers. The racial and ethnic disparities in obesity underscore the need to address social determinants of health, including food insecurity, access to healthy and nutritious foods, poverty, and other systemic barriers to health.

“These changes in school meal nutrition standards are an important step toward addressing America’s childhood obesity crisis. Millions of U.S. children get a significant proportion of their daily food intake via meals served in school. Evidence shows that ensuring that those meals are high in nutritional value will improve children’s health and help with their school performance and readiness to learn,” said J. Nadine Gracia, M.D., MSCE, President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health.

Learn more about adult and childhood obesity trends and policies to address the obesity crisis in TFAH’s 2021 State of Obesity Report: Better Policies for a Healthier America.

Trust for America’s Health Statement in Recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the National Day of Racial Healing, 2022

Trust for America’s Health’s (TFAH) Board Chair, Gail Christopher, D.N., and President and CEO, J. Nadine Gracia, M.D., MSCE, released the following statement in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the National Day of Racial Healing.

(Washington, D.C. – January 17, 2022)

“Today’s observation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and tomorrow’s National Day of Racial Healing is a time to take action on the work that needs to be done to end racism, heal the impacts of centuries of racial injustice, and promote equity for all people.

Structural racism has far-reaching impacts on people’s health, education, employment and economic opportunities, access to safe and affordable housing, access to transportation, access to high quality healthcare, and their treatment within the criminal justice system.

Our goal is to advance policies and actions that will create meaningful change, including addressing social inequities and promoting racial healing. Dismantling racism is a public health imperative. The disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic within communities of color is the most current example of the ways in which structural racism continues to have consequential and often tragic impacts on people’s lives.

TFAH is committed to continuing its work to advocate for policies that overcome the impacts of racism and advance health equity. Meaningful change will require racial healing which will in turn necessitate acknowledging the historic and contemporary impacts of racism, reframing the narrative, and building relationships across communities.”

TFAH calls for the following actions to reverse the impact of structural racism in America:

  • Make advancing health equity and eliminating health disparities a national priority. Such a priority requires ending systemic barriers and advancing policies and programs that create equitable opportunity for health and well-being.
  • Target the elimination of poverty by increasing the minimum wage and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit at the national and state levels.
  • Increase funding for programs that address health inequities, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) and Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country programs.
  • Recruit and sustain a diverse public health workforce through public health workforce loan repayment and support the hiring of public health equity experts through investments in public health infrastructure and workforce.
  • Increase access to high-quality healthcare for all by strengthening incentives to expand Medicaid in all states and by making marketplace coverage more affordable for low-and moderate-income people.
  • Create a national standard mandating job-protected paid family and medical leave for all employees.
  • Increase funding for programs that promote long-term security and good health for children and families, including programs designed to expand access to affordable housing and Head Start, Early Head Start, and nutrition support programs such as Healthy School Meals for All, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
  • Funding agencies should meaningfully engage with historically underserved communities to best understand their needs and work with community leaders to co-lead teams that establish, lead, and evaluate programs.
  • Federal and state governments should act to protect voting rights for all.

For more information about these and other policy recommendations see TFAH reports A Blueprint for the 2021 Administration and Congress – The Promise of Good Health for All: Transforming Public Health in America. And Leveraging Evidence-Based Policies to Improve Health, Control Costs, and Create Health Equity

 

 

Next Iteration of the Build Back Better Act Should Include Critical Investments in Public Health, Emergency Preparedness, and the Social Determinants of Health

(January 10, 2022) — As the 117th Congress begins its work in 2022, it is critical that it seeks to bolster the nation’s public health system and address longstanding inequities that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the country continues to grapple with the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, Congress has the opportunity to make urgent investments in core public health infrastructure, to modernize national, state and local public health laboratory systems, and to direct much needed resources to address current and longstanding public health challenges. As Congress considers the next steps for the Build Back Better Act, TFAH recommends that the following policies be prioritized as negotiations move forward:

  • Investing in chronically underfunded public health infrastructure to address the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that public health is better equipped to effectively respond to future health threats. The pandemic exposed the impact of outdated, understaffed health departments. The Build Back Better Act includes $8.4 billion in funding to enable health departments to address longstanding infrastructure and workforce gaps and modernize public health data systems and laboratories across the country. TFAH recommends an additional $4.5 billion annual investment to support and sustain federal, state, local, territorial, and Tribal foundational public health capabilities.
  • Expanding availability of nutritious foods to ensure children, regardless of their socioeconomic status, can access high-quality, nutritious meals when school is in session and during school closures. The Build Back Better Act includes provisions to expand the Community Eligibility Program (CEP), invest in a Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program, and establish a Healthy Food Incentives Demonstration to support schools in developing healthy food offerings. TFAH also recommends extending Healthy School Meals for All, which provides students access to school meals at no charge regardless of their family income as a step to ending child hunger and ensuring access to healthy foods.
  • Increasing access to life-saving behavioral health programs. The Build Back Better Act includes $2.5 billion in funding to support public health approaches to reduce community violence and trauma, $75 million to support the infrastructure of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and $15 million to support the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Project Aware program, which helps schools promote the mental health of their students. TFAH recommends focusing on primary prevention of behavioral health concerns, including through suicide and Adverse Childhood Experiences prevention and increasing investments in social-emotional learning and wellness in schools.
  • Investing in early childhood education and services to ensure families have access to high-quality childcare and early education. The Build Back Better Act includes $400 billion to establish a birth-through-five childcare and early learning entitlement program, bolster Head Start, create a universal preschool program, and significantly strengthen the early childhood education workforce through training and increased pay.
  • Establishing a comprehensive paid family and medical leave policy to ensure workers can take time off to address health or caregiving needs. The Build Back Better Act includes provisions that grew out of the FAMILY Act and would provide up to 12 weeks of partial income while employees take family or medical leave. Access to paid family and medical leave can help control disease outbreaks, improve parental and child health, and contribute to a healthier, more productive workforce.
  • Increasing access to safe and affordable housing to address housing insecurity amongst low-income families. Stable and healthy housing is a significant social determinant of health. The Build Back Better Act includes $24 billion for new Housing Choice Vouchers and supportive services, $5 billion to address lead paint and other health hazards, $15 billion to support the preservation and creation of rental homes for low-income households, and $500 million to expand the supply of affordable housing with supportive services for older adults.

U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Increased by 31 Percent in 2020; Up 56 Percent for Synthetic Opioids

(Washington, DC – January 4, 2022) According to a National Center for Health Statistics report released the last week of 2021 using official annual mortality data, 91,799 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2020. This is an astounding 31 percent increase over the 2019 rate and the largest year-over-year rate increase on record. Additional data suggests that 2021 drug overdose deaths continued to increase, underscoring the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the health and well-being of Americans.

The increases in drug deaths occurred nationally, spanning age, sex, and racial/ethnic groups. In both 2019 and 2020, the highest overdose deaths rates were for American Indian/Alaska Native people and the largest percentage increase in drug overdose death rates from 2019 to 2020 were seen in Black and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander people. These data show again the urgent need for comprehensive action to address the nation’s growing substance misuse crisis among diverse populations.

Additional analysis by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Well Being Trust (WBT) of state-level data show nearly all states and the District of Columbia saw increases between 2019 and 2020, including very large ones for many states.

  • Five states—Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and West Virginia—had drug overdose death rates that increased by more than 50 percent between 2019 and 2020.
  • Just seven states had increases under 10 percent, including three states (Delaware, New Hampshire, and South Dakota) that saw declines.

“The long-term and recent trends in drug overdoses are alarming, and require more attention from policymakers,” said J. Nadine Gracia, M.D., MSCE, President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health. “As we continue to respond to and work to recover from the pandemic, we must take a comprehensive approach that includes policies and programs that reduce overdoses and help Americans suffering from addiction. Policies that address social, economic, and environmental disadvantage, such as childhood trauma, poverty, and discrimination, are needed to help change the trajectory of alcohol, drug, and suicide deaths in the coming decades.”

Over the last five years, TFAH and WBT have released as series of reports on “deaths of despair” called Pain in the Nation: The Drug, Alcohol and Suicides Epidemics and the Need for a National Resilience Strategy, which include data analysis and recommendations for evidence-based policies and programs that federal, state, and local officials. The 2022 Pain in the Nation report will be released in May.

“This comes down to leadership and action. If we don’t move to do something now, these terrible trends will only continue,” said Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD, President of Well Being Trust. “The data are clear— we need to move beyond talk and push for programs and policies that work; and, we need to do so in a way that recognizes that all communities are different and each are going to benefit from a more tailored approach to address this massive problem.”

Key findings by drug-type from the recent NCHS report include:

  • Overall drug overdoses deaths: 91,799 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2020, a rate of 28.3 deaths per 100,000 people. This is a rate 31 percent higher than over 2019 when 70,630 Americans died of drug overdoses (21.6 deaths per 100,000).
  • Opioid overdose deaths: 68,630 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2020, a rate of 21.4 deaths per 100,000 people. This is a rate 38 percent higher than 2019 when 49,860 Americans died of opioid overdoses (15.5 deaths per 100,000).
  • Synthetic opioid overdose deaths: 56,516 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses in 2020, a rate of 17.8 deaths per 100,000 people. That is a rate 56 percent higher than 2019, when 36,359 Americans died of synthetic opioids overdoses (11.4 deaths per 100,000). The rate of synthetic opioid overdose deaths has increased more than fivefold over the past five years.
  • Cocaine overdose deaths: 19,447 Americans died from cocaine overdoses in 2020, a rate of 6.0 deaths per 100,000 people. That rate is 22 percent higher than 2019, when 15,883 Americans died of cocaine overdoses (4.9 deaths per 100,000). The rate of cocaine overdose deaths has increased by almost threefold over the past five years.
  • Psychostimulant overdose deaths: 23,837 Americans died from psychostimulants in 2020, a rate of 7.5 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s a rate 50 percent higher than 2019, when 16,167 Americans died from psychostimulant overdoses (5.0 deaths per 100,000). The rate of psychostimulants overdose death has increased by fourfold over the past five years.

Additional annual, racial/ethnic, and state-level data can be found below.

Drug Overdose Deaths, 1999-2020

Year Deaths Deaths per 100,000 (Age Adjusted)
1999 16,849 6.1
2000 17,415 6.2
2001 19,394 6.8
2002 23,518 8.2
2003 25,785 8.9
2004 27,424 9.4
2005 29,813 10.1
2006 34,425 11.5
2007 36,010 11.9
2008 36,450 11.9
2009 37,004 11.9
2010 38,329 12.3
2011 41,340 13.2
2012 41,502 13.1
2013 43,982 13.8
2014 47,055 14.7
2015 52,404 16.3
2016 63,632 19.8
2017 70,237 21.7
2018 67,367 20.7
2019 70,630 21.6
2020 91,799 28.3

Source: National Vital Statistics System, National Center for Health Statistics

Drug Overdose Deaths by Racial/Ethnic Groups, 2019-2020

Racial/Ethnic Group 2019 Deaths 2019 Deaths Per 100,000         (Age Adjusted) 2020 Deaths 2020 Deaths Per 100,000         (Age Adjusted) Change in Death Rate, 2019–2020
Non-Hispanic White 50,044 26.2 62,312 33.1 26%
Non-Hispanic Black 10,517 24.8 15,256 35.8 44%
Non-Hispanic American Indian/ Alaska Native 723 30.5 1,009 42.5 39%
Non-Hispanic Asian 679 3.3 935 4.6 39%
Non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian/ Other Pacific Islander 58 9.5 86 13.7 44%
Hispanic 7,473 12.7 10,606 17.6 39%

Source: National Vital Statistics System, National Center for Health Statistics

Drug Overdose Deaths by State, 2019-2020

State 2019 Deaths 2019 Deaths Per 100,000          (Age Adjusted) 2020 Deaths 2020 Deaths Per 100,000          (Age Adjusted) Change in Death Rate, 2019–2020
Alabama 768 16.3 1029 22.3 37%
Alaska 132 17.8 160 22.0 24%
Arizona 1907 26.8 2550 35.8 33%
Arkansas 388 13.5 546 19.1 41%
California 6198 15.0 8908 21.8 46%
Colorado 1079 18.0 1492 24.9 38%
Connecticut 1214 34.7 1371 39.1 13%
Delaware 435 48.0 444 47.3 -2%
D.C. 311 43.2 424 58.1 34%
Florida 5268 25.5 7231 35.0 37%
Georgia 1408 13.1 1916 18.0 38%
Hawaii 242 15.9 274 18.3 15%
Idaho 265 15.1 287 15.9 5%
Illinois 2790 21.9 3549 28.1 28%
Indiana 1699 26.6 2321 36.7 38%
Iowa 352 11.5 432 14.3 25%
Kansas 403 14.3 490 17.4 22%
Kentucky 1380 32.5 2083 49.2 51%
Louisiana 1267 28.3 1896 42.7 51%
Maine 371 29.9 496 39.7 33%
Maryland 2369 38.2 2771 44.6 17%
Massachusetts 2210 32.1 2302 33.9 6%
Michigan 2385 24.4 2759 28.6 17%
Minnesota 792 14.2 1050 19.0 34%
Mississippi 394 13.6 586 21.1 55%
Missouri 1583 26.9 1875 32.1 19%
Montana 143 14.1 162 15.6 10%
Nebraska 161 8.7 214 11.3 30%
Nevada 647 20.1 832 26.0 29%
New Hampshire 407 32.0 393 30.3 -5%
New Jersey 2805 31.7 2840 32.1 1%
New Mexico 599 30.2 784 39.0 29%
New York 3617 18.2 4965 25.4 39%
North Carolina 2266 22.3 3146 30.9 39%
North Dakota 82 11.4 114 15.6 37%
Ohio 4251 38.3 5204 47.2 23%
Oklahoma 645 16.7 762 19.4 17%
Oregon 615 14.0 803 18.7 34%
Pennsylvania 4377 35.6 5168 42.4 19%
Rhode Island 307 29.5 397 38.2 29%
South Carolina 1127 22.7 1739 34.9 54%
South Dakota 86 10.5 83 10.3 -2%
Tennessee 2089 31.2 3034 45.6 46%
Texas 3136 10.8 4172 14.1 31%
Utah 571 18.9 622 20.5 8%
Vermont 133 23.8 190 32.9 38%
Virginia 1547 18.3 2240 26.6 45%
Washington 1259 15.8 1733 22.0 39%
West Virginia 870 52.8 1330 81.4 54%
Wisconsin 1201 21.1 1531 27.7 31%
Wyoming 79 14.1 99 17.4 23%

Source: TFAH and WBT analysis of data from the National Center for Health Statistics

Trust for America’s Health is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority. www.tfah.org Twitter:@HealthyAmerica1

Well Being Trust is a national foundation dedicated to advancing the mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation. Created to include participation from organizations across sectors and perspectives, Well Being Trust is committed to innovating and addressing the most critical mental health challenges facing America, and to transforming individual and community well-being. www.wellbeingtrust.org. Twitter: @WellBeingTrust

TFAH Applauds Introduction of the Protecting the Health of America’s Older Adults Act

(Washington, DC – December 16) – Trust for America’s Health, a non-partisan, nonprofit public health policy, research and advocacy organization, applauds the introduction of the bipartisan Protecting the Health of America’s Older Adults Act by Representatives Lois Frankel (CA-44), Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) and Debbie Dingell (MI-12). The bill would enable state and local public health departments to better meet the needs of older adults via innovative new strategies.

If enacted, the bill would create a Healthy Aging grant program at CDC to provide grants to health departments to help states and local communities coordinate multi-sector efforts to promote the health of older adults and develop aging expertise. The grant program would allow state and local health departments to apply an aging lens to all of their work, including efforts to reduce healthcare costs and improve health equity. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of public health’s role in the aging sector, and this new program will help ensure that health departments have the resources they need to make a meaningful impact for seniors.

The President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health, Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, congratulates Representatives Frankel, Bilirakis, and Dingell on the introduction of the bill, stating:

“The last year underscored how important it is for public health to be at the table when it comes to promoting the health of older adults. Health departments have been critical to addressing the needs of older adults during the pandemic; their active engagement in many other issues faced by the aging population, including transportation and housing access, chronic disease, and mental health, will promote better aging outcomes and benefit our entire society. This new grant program would be a step in the right direction to ensure that state and local health departments have the resources to do exactly that.”

In addition to TFAH, original endorsing organizations include:

  • Alliance for Aging Research
  • American Association on Health and Disability
  • American Lung Association
  • American Muslim Health Professionals
  • American Public Health Association
  • American Psychological Association
  • Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
  • Association of State Public Health Nutritionists
  • Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
  • Authority Health
  • Catholic Health Association of the United States
  • Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly (CARIE)
  • Ceres Community Project
  • Christian Council of Delmarva
  • Coalition of National Health Education Organizations
  • Common Threads
  • Elder Options
  • Equality California
  • FLIPANY
  • Florida Public Health Association
  • The Gerontological Society of America
  • Hartsfield Health Systems Consulting, LLC
  • Lakeshore Foundation
  • Long Beach Gray Panthers
  • Maine Council on Aging
  • Maine Public Health Association
  • Mel Leaman Free Clinic
  • MindWise Innovations
  • National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs
  • National Network of Public Health Institutes
  • National Recreation and Park Association
  • National Senior Games Association
  • Peggy Lillis Foundation
  • The Praxis Project
  • Prevent Blindness
  • Silver State Equality-Nevada
  • Society for Public Health Education
  • Society for Women’s Health Research
  • Tennessee Justice Center
  • Urban Health Partnerships
  • Valley AIDS Council
  • WARM, Inc.
  • Washington State Public Health Association
  • We All Rise

TFAH has prepared a fact sheet on the legislation.

 

Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust Applaud the Surgeon General’s Advisory on Youth Mental Health

The challenges to our children’s mental health were many before COVID-19 and made worse by the pandemic – immediate action is needed

(December 7, 2021) – Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust strongly applaud U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s Advisory on Youth Mental Health released today.

“We applaud the Surgeon General for not only drawing more attention to the issue of youth mental health, but reminding us that this problem, significant before COVID-19, has been negatively impacted during, and could only get worse after the pandemic without robust action,” said Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD, President of Well Being Trust.  “By proactively addressing mental health, including bringing care to where people are, we are more likely to meet the moment in a way that can help countless young people and their families.”

The Surgeon General’s advisory calls for “a swift and coordinated response” to the nation’s youth mental health crisis and demonstrates the need for all sectors of society to be part of the solution with recommendations for what individuals, families, community organizations, technology companies and government can do to improve and protect young people’s mental health.

“One of the strengths of this advisory is that it recognizes that in order to support young people’s mental health we need to address the social and economic conditions in their lives with multisector initiatives, said J. Nadine Gracia, M.D., MSCE, President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health. “Where a child lives, where they go to school, their family’s access to employment and safe housing all impact their mental health.”

TFAH and WBT’s Pain in the Nation series has tracked the nation’s deaths of despair since 2017 including the escalating youth mental health crisis. Its report Addressing a Crisis: Cross-Sector Strategies to Prevent Adolescent Substance Use and Suicide. makes recommendations for cross sector action.

 

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Trust for America’s Health is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority. Twitter: @HealthyAmerica1

Well Being Trust is a national foundation dedicated to advancing the mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation. Created to include participation from organizations across sectors and perspectives, Well Being Trust is committed to innovating and addressing the most critical mental health challenges facing America, and to transforming individual and community well-being. www.wellbeingtrust.org. Twitter: @WellBeingTrust

 

 

Trust for America’s Health Applauds the Bipartisan Policy Center Report Public Health Forward: Modernizing the U.S. Public Health System

Sustained Investment in the nation’s public health system is critical to safeguarding the nation’s health security and achieving health equity

(Washington, DC – December 2, 2021) – Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) applauds and strongly endorses the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) report, Public Health Forward: Modernizing the U.S. Public Health System, released today. The report describes the ways COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in the nation’s public health system and pervasive disparities in conditions that affect Americans’ health. It outlines a five-year vision and actionable framework for how state, territorial and local elected and public health officials can enhance their jurisdiction’s public health infrastructure. TFAH’s President and CEO J. Nadine Gracia, M.D., MSCE and Distinguished Visiting Fellow David Fleming, M.D. served on the report’s Public Health Advisory Group.

The infusion of pandemic relief funds is an opportunity to address the community conditions that negatively impact health, according to the report.  And public health has a critical role to play by addressing health inequities, working to reverse the surge in the number of Americans living with a chronic disease, promoting healthy eating and active living, controlling infectious disease, and preventing injuries.

“BPC’s report is critical reading for policymakers. It provides a roadmap for the public health system our nation’s needs to protect everyone’s health, including communities currently at disproportionate risk due to systemic inequities,” said J. Nadine Gracia, President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health. “The report should guide immediate and sustained investment in public health.”

Many of the report’s policy recommendations align with recent Trust for America’s Health recommendations. Both BPC and TFAH are calling for the following:

  • Increase and sustain predictable and flexible public health funding. TFAH recommends an annual $4.5 billion public health infrastructure fund to support foundational public health capabilities at the federal, state, local, territorial and Tribal levels.
  • Invest in programs to address health inequities, including the root causes of disease and the impact of the social determinants of health.
  • Strengthen public health data collection and sharing. Data should be collected and disaggregated by race, ethnicity and other sociodemographic characteristics so the impacts of policies, interventions and health conditions on specific population and sub-populations groups are known.
  • Invest in the recruitment and retention of a diverse, well-trained public health workforce.
  • Protect public health departments’ ability to make science-based decisions free from inappropriate political influence.

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Trust for America’s Health is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority.

 

Trust for America’s Health Applauds COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force Report

Addressing health inequities is critical to protecting everyone’s health and being prepared for future health public emergencies

(Washington, DC – November 10, 2021) – Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) applauds the report of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, including its recommendations to President Biden for mitigating the health inequities caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and for preventing such inequities in the future. We furthermore commend the Biden Administration  for responding to the report’s call to action with new investments in initiatives to improve community and public health in traditionally under-resourced communities, including communities of color and among underserved populations.

In January of 2021, the Biden Administration created the Task Force, a multisector group of individuals with expertise and lived experience relevant to groups suffering disproportionate rates of illness and death from COVID-19, experts in fields such as public health, healthcare, behavioral health, and community-based services, as well as government officials. The Task Force represents diverse perspectives on how to address COVID-19 related health and social inequities and strengthen the nation’s public health response.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated longstanding systemic inequities in our nation,” said J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE, President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health.  “The COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force has laid out a road map for reducing inequities during this pandemic and before the next public health emergency.  As the report acknowledges, we must engage in a multisector effort to address the upstream factors that contribute to underlying health inequities in order to promote optimal health and build resilience in all communities. TFAH looks forward to working with the administration on our shared goals.”

The Task Force’s report echoes many of TFAH’s policy recommendations. The following are policy priorities shared by the Task Force report and TFAH:

  • Fund the public health workforce and emergency response. The federal government should increase and sustain funding for equity-centered pandemic and public health emergency activities and infrastructure at the federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial levels. This should include building a workforce dedicated to public health emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and disaster-related behavioral health services and supporting communities with the greatest healthcare inequities.
  • Support equity-centered data collection. The federal government should fund an equity-centered approach to data collection, including ensuring sufficient funding to collect data for groups that are experiencing disproportionate impact during the pandemic and to understand the specific needs of currently underserved populations.
  • Fund data modernization for health settings. The federal government should provide funding for healthcare and public health to update data systems centered on equity and to ensure interoperability and automatic electronic lab reporting of a robust set of disaggregated, standardized socioeconomic and demographic data elements.
  • Strengthen multi-sector collaboration. The federal government should strengthen collaboration with a diverse array of community-based organizations and public health providers by providing robust and sustained funding to build capacity, provide technical assistance and establish partnerships with communities of color and other underserved populations.
  • Prioritize vaccine, testing, treatment, and personal protective equipment (PPE) access for underserved communities. Federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments should prioritize vaccine distribution, testing, treatment, and PPE access to communities of color and other underserved populations, including those who face mobility, geographic, or other barriers to access.
  • Address the social determinants of health. The federal government should lead efforts to advance the social determinants of health including nutrition safety net programs for individuals and families who are food insecure and for those that have limited access to healthy food options.
  • Increase access to behavioral healthcare. Federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments should increase investment in and access to comprehensive, equity-centered behavioral health services, including a focus on prevention.
  • Lead and coordinate implementation of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force’s recommendations from a permanent health equity infrastructure in the White House.

TFAH reports on emergency preparedness, public health funding, leveraging policy to improve Americans’ health and create health equity, and a legislative blueprint to transform the nation’s public health system, include additional recommendations that support the Task Force’s health equity goals.

New Data Show Sixteen States Have Adult Obesity Rates at 35 Percent or Higher Up From 12 States in 2019

Social and economic factors linked to obesity were exacerbated by COVID-19 pandemic

(Washington, DC – September 15, 2021) – In 2020, 16 states had adult obesity rates at or above 35 percent, up from 12 states the previous year. These and other emerging data show that the COVID-19 pandemic changed eating habits, worsened levels of food insecurity, created obstacles to physical activity, and heightened stress, all exacerbating the decades long pattern of obesity in America.

State of Obesity 2021: Better Policies for a Healthier America, released today by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) is based in part on newly released 2020 data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System and analysis by TFAH. It provides an annual snapshot of rates of overweight and obesity by age, race/ethnicity and state of residence for U.S. adults. In the report, TFAH calls for addressing the social determinants of obesity, for example, by ensuring access to no cost healthy school meals for all students, a program started during the pandemic.

Obesity is associated with a range of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, sleep apnea, and many types of cancers. Obesity is estimated to increase healthcare spending by $149 billion annually (about half of which is paid for by Medicare and Medicaid). Furthermore, obesity is one of the underlying health conditions associated with the most serious consequences of COVID-19 infection, including higher risk of hospitalization and death.

Since the start of the pandemic, 42 percent of adults in the U.S. experienced weight gain, according to a Harris Poll conducted in February 2021. The average self-reported weight gain amongst U.S. adults was 29 pounds.

Sixteen states have adult obesity rates at or above 35 percent

Obesity rates vary considerably between states and regions of the country. In 2020, Mississippi had the highest adult obesity rate at 39.7 percent, followed by West Virginia at 39.1 percent and Alabama at 39 percent. Colorado had the lowest adult obesity rate nationally at 24.2 percent.

Nationally, 16 states now have adult obesity rates at or above 35 percent.  New to this list are Delaware, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas. The twelve states that continue to have adult rates above 35 percent are: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.  (See state rates chart).

As recently as 2012, no state had an adult obesity rate above 35 percent.

Systemic inequities and socioeconomic factors contribute to higher rates of obesity among certain racial and ethnic populations. According to the latest available national data – from the 2017 – 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Black adults had the highest level of adult obesity nationally at 49.6 percent; driven in large part by an adult obesity rate among Black women of 56.9 percent.  Hispanic adults have an obesity rate of 44.8 percent. White adults have an obesity rate of 42.2 percent. Asian adults have an obesity rate of 17.4 percent.

“The epidemic of obesity is an urgent problem in the U.S. and has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is needed are transformational policies and bold investment in programs that reduce health inequities and address the social and economic conditions that are barriers to access to affordable, healthy food and physical activity,” said J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE, President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health.

Rising obesity rates are also a problem among children and adolescents.  According to the 2017 – 2018 NHANES data nearly 20 percent (19.3 percent) of U.S. children ages 2 to 19 have obesity. These data more than tripled since the mid-1970s and Black and Latino youth have substantially higher rates of obesity than do their white peers.

Policies to Address the Obesity Crisis

Solving the nation’s obesity crisis will require increased investment and bold policy action. Recommendations within this report focus on two principles: 1) the need for multi-sector, multi-disciplinary approaches, and 2) an intentional focus on those population groups that experience a disproportionate risk for obesity.  Policymakers will not be able to reverse obesity trends without addressing the social, economic and environmental conditions at the root of the crisis.

The report includes policy recommendations – actions to be undertaken by federal, local and state government, the education sector, the healthcare sector and the food industry – including:

  • Increase funding for CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. This investment should include at least $125 million in FY2022 for CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity and $102.5 million in FY2022 for CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health to ensure sufficient and equitable funding for obesity prevention programs in all 50 states.
  • Make healthy school meals free for all students as a step to end child hunger and ensure access to healthy foods. Protect the recent expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and enhance access to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).
  • Close tax loopholes and eliminate business-cost deductions related to the advertising of unhealthy food and beverages to children.
  • Increase the price of sugary drinks through an excise tax, with tax revenue allocated to local efforts to reduce health and socioeconomic disparities and obesity prevention programs.
  • Ensure that every resident has safe and convenient access to walking and biking trails, and that all students have safe routes to walk or bike to school. State and local education agencies should prioritize physical activity during the school day.
  • Expand access to health insurance including through the extension of Medicaid and by making marketplace coverage more affordable. Insurance plans should cover all U.S. Preventive Services Task Force “A” or “B” recommendations for obesity prevention programs with no cost-sharing to the patient.

 Report: State of Obesity 2021: Better Policies for a Healthier America