Tackling a 'weighty' problem

Dr. Mary Ann Rigas is a respected pediatrician at Charles Cole Memorial Hospital and a leader in the mission to combat childhood obesity in the region.)

One of the joys of pediatric practice is the privilege of being able to witness our patients' growth and development, often from birth until adulthood.

In recent years, I have become increasingly frustrated with a problem I encounter daily: the overweight child or adolescent. My colleagues and I are determined to face the problem head-on.

Last year, we received a grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics. We developed three goals.

The first was to assess the prevalence of obesity and develop means to identify obese children without medical homes.

The second was to bring together a multidisciplinary coalition of community partners for a strategy to prevent and treat pediatric obesity.

Third was to educate medical, school and community professionals who work with children on ways to help children and their families adopt healthy lifestyles.

The coalition (Russ Streich, Sarah Fry, Ellen Shinn, Diane Renziehausen, Mary Hann, Paul Simcoe, Dr. Marleen Wust-Smith and Dr. Amit Khanna) has been meeting monthly. We have determined that the prevalence of overweight and at-risk children is 30.4 percent. This compares to 25 percent for Pennsylvania and 30.9 percent for the nation.

Our surveys and focus groups have identified factors that have contributed to the rise in obesity in our children: an increasingly technological society, a surge in the consumption of fast food, the cost and limited availability of healthy foods, weather and transportation barriers, busy schools, lack of nutritional and exercise programs and others.

Our vision is to develop a comprehensive, community-based, family-oriented pediatric lifestyle management program. We hope to conduct regular sessions that combine nutrition education with active exercise instruction in many communities.

These programs should supplement the evaluation and education by the primary care practitioners, who will serve as our referral sources.

We plan to continue to work closely with schools and other community organizations to make changes in nutrition and exercise offerings in these settings.