Summary and Response to "Community-Level Obesity Prevention Initiatives - Impact and Lessons Learned"

Summary:
The article "Community-Level Obesity Prevention Initiatives - Impact and Lessons Learned" written by Allen Cheadle, Suzanne Rauzon and Pamela M. Schwartz discusses how several areas in the United States have implement initiatives to combat obesity in the populace over the last 10 years. They have done this by creating policy and environmental changes in regards to food and exercise in certain demographics. The policy changes tried to reduce obesity by taxing sugary drinks and reducing unhealthy food at schools. The environmental changes tried to improve access to and cost of healthier foods and drinks. However it is uncertain if these initiatives have actually worked. It is difficult to measure their success because of the difficulty in gathering concrete data about the populace's behaviors when it comes to food and exercise. The authors researched existing published studies between the years 2000 and 2012 to try to understand the impact of these initiatives.  They focused on two initiatives "Shape Up Somerville" and "Kaiser Permanent HEAL-CHI Initiative." "Shape Up Somerville" tried to increase healthy foods in every aspect of the community. It was successful in reducing body mass index scores of children in first to third grade. The "Kaiser Permanent HEAL-CHI Initiative" tried to affect school policies on cafeteria food as well as increasing exercise for students in elementary schools. This Initiative was effective at increasing exercise in students from 61% to 67%. The article recommends strategies that "Focus on youth in schools", "Cluster strategies", "Sustainable strategies" and "Logical model evaluation designs." All in all the article says that the Initiatives are promising but should continue to be monitored.

Response:
I think since a lot of money is spend on this Initiatives it should be controlled. Obesity is a big problem in the United States and policies for taxing sugary drinks and unhealthy foods are necessary. This article is summarizing important research and is showing the different Initiatives. I believe it is  trustworthy information and useful to know.