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Medical Group Battles Obesity

June 26, 2006

Blue Cross of California is writing a fat check to slim down the state's children.

The company will spend $9 million over the next three years to combat childhood obesity using a variety of approaches. Some of the money will go toward training Inland Empire physicians and students on how to slim down - for life. Dr. Webster Wong, chief of pediatrics at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, said the measures Blue Cross is funding are badly needed. The $9 million will buy some welcomed programs, Wong said, but it won't even come close to solving the problem of childhood obesity. "We're spending so much time developing strategies to prevent obesity. But it's on the rise, certainly," Wong said. .

The solution needs to come soon, Wong said. He said obese children almost always grow into obese adults. And obese adults often suffer from hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, orthopedic problems and a host of other maladies associated with their extra weight. According to the California Health and Human Services Agency, one in three California children is overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. As many as 80 percent of obese youths continue to be obese into adulthood, found a study in the American Academy of Pediatrics. For that reason, getting kids in shape now could save millions of dollars later in health care for obesity-related problems, Wong said. He said it will take a multipronged approach to attack the epidemic.

Blue Cross spokesman Robert Alaniz said his company funds just such a variety of factors. It includes training for doctors in measuring a child's body-mass index, and funding for nutrition classes and physical-education programs in the state's schools. "We're also putting out a physician's tool kit, about 12,000 of them," Alaniz said. "In medical school, they're not taught how to broach the subject (of an overweight child) with parents, without hurting their feelings.""Part of the biggest problems is that we're not talking about these things," he said.

Wong agreed that physician training is important. He said much of the problem is the limits the health-care system puts on a clinician's time with a patient. "We need to educate clinicians - to recognizing obesity, taking BMIs, understanding what to do in a general workup, knowing when to refer patients to different programs," Wong said. "We need to be able to have time to sit down with a family and delve into a lot of issues presenting themselves with obesity in children." For any solution to succeed, the doctor and the entire family need to be involved, said Dr. Lakshmi Dhanvandhari, a medical director for Blue Cross of California.

Dhanvandhari said Blue Cross is teaching kids to eat right and exercise, teaching physicians to recognize the signs of obesity, and teaching families to take an active role in their children's lifestyle. One component of that network includes the schools. Blue Cross, together with the American Heart Association, is distributing thousands of jump ropes to schools across the state to entice children to participate in physical activity.The educational materials will be available in several languages. Blue Cross is also starting a 24-hour phone line dedicated to answering mothers' questions about breast feeding. Breast feeding has been shown to reduce obesity later in life.