First generation in US history to live shorter lives than their parents.

Today’s US children are destined to be the first generation in 200 years to live shorter lives than their parents, according to a report by the Trust for American Health (TFAH).
Between 5 and 11 years is feared to be lost from the average life span of 75. Jeffrey Levi, PhD, executive director of TFAH claims that children’s lives will not only be shorter, but sicker too if current trajectories in obesity, cancer, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease continue at the current rate;

“Today’s kids could become the first in American history to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents.” Jeffrey Levi, PhD, executive director of Trust for American Health

The antidote to the crisis is the Health Prevention Fund; a $14.5 billion US government investment enacted by the Affordable Care Act, 2010. The fund is the largest investment ever in prevention care. Prior to the Act, only 3% of health care funding was allocated to preventative health care. 75 per cent of the $2.5 trillion spent on U.S. medical care was spent on treatment of chronic, preventable disease such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Sequestering of government budgets has seen cuts to the Health Prevention Fund of $51 million. Despite this, the US government is confident that the fund can contribute to a preventative health care system to replace the current “sick care” system.

The Health Prevention Fund is the single largest investment in prevention health in the US, despite cuts or “safe guarding” of budgets.

The $14.5 billion dollars, to be attributed over a 10 year period, will lead to a number of investments to include:

• Vaccinations for Children (+$261.955 million)
• Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (+$128.699 million)
• Affordable Care Act Prevention and Public Health Fund (+$78.210 million)
• Domestic HIV/AIDS Prevention and Research (+$40.231 million)
• Health Statistics (+$23.150 million)
• Food Safety (+$16.735 million)
• Polio Eradication (+$15.079 million)
• National Healthcare Safety Network (+$12.628 million)
• Tobacco cessation (helpline and education) (+$6.040 million)

Community Transformation Grants (CTG) — ambitious, community-centered grants enabling communities to respond to health inequalities from within the community they originate have pre set targets to be achieved within a 5 year period.

CTG targets include:

• reduce a community’s rate of obesity by 5%
• reduce death and disability from heart disease and stroke by 5%
• reduce death and disability due to tobacco use by 5%

The TFAH report documents a number of successful CTG programs that have been in operation including in Akron, Ohio the CTG fund has helped to reduce the average care cost per month for type 2 diabetes by more than 10% saving an estimated $3,185 per person, per year. West Virginia has implemented policies for safety, school nutrition and physical activity and Iowa, which is cultivating healthy lifestyle accountability through a partnership between health providers and community agencies.

Adult obesity has doubled since 1980 from 15% to 30%. By 2030, more than 60% of adults in 13 US states could be diagnosed with obesity if current trajectories continue costing $196 in lost productivity and $213 billion in direct medical costs. Despite obesity costing the country $147 billion in direct healthcare costs each year and two thirds of Americans currently either obese or overweight, the US has adopted a tentative strategy towards the activity of the food industry.

The US drafted “Voluntary Guidelines for the Marketing of Food to Children” — self regulatory guidelines that are open to be adopted, or ignored. The UK, facing similar obesity issues, has set out a similarly tentative business ‘Pledge’ – companies volunteer to pledge to meet salt and fat targets and remove trans fats. Both are ‘opt in’ recommendations. According to Small Business, only 11% of UK companies have signed up for the Pledge scheme.

Investment in the future health of the US and UK needs to be big.  According to a report by The Telegraph, Kraft has recently set aside a massive $26million pound investment in the development of R & D Centre (Research and development) for its UK base alone. The opening of the centre which includes innovation labs, a pilot plant facility, 3D printers and a ‘collaborative kitchen’ for experimentation with new ideas, comes after Kraft revealed profits rose 54% to £521m ($830m) for the final quarter of 2011.

“Joyville” perhaps for Kraft, but not for the US and the UK who already face a tough battle for a healthy future.



Notes:

The Truth About the Prevention and Public Health Fund
http://healthyamericans.org/assets/files/Truth%20about%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Public%20Health%20Fund.pdf

Fact Sheet – Health Prevention Fund
http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/3060CA48-35E3-4F57-B1A5-CA1C1102090C/0/APHA_PPHF_factsheet_May2013.pdf

Dept of Health and Human services (budget appropriations):
http://www.cdc.gov/fmo/topic/Budget%20Information/appropriations_budget_form_pdf/FY2013_CDC_CJ_Final.pdf

Joyville at Cadbury (Kraft)
http://www.cadburydairymilk.co.uk/