Obesity and Its Public Health Challenge

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labeling, FDA will be issuing ANPRM form to assure whether the nutrition claims on the labels meets FDA regulations of "reduced" calorie intake. For example, foods low in calories are those that can lessen the risk of obesity, which is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. (FDA). For educational campaigns, “FDA is working to create dealings with youth-oriented organizations such as the Girl Scouts of the USA and the 4-H program.” Also, FDA works with other components of HHS to create "Shaping America’s Youth" initiative to identify actions that need to be taken to address childhood and adolescent overweight (FDA)

Arkansas’s Act 1220 of 2003 serves as the most comprehensive school-based childhood obesity legislation at that time and involves in resolving childhood obesity as a public health professional. They used Multiple Streams Framework to analyze factors that brought childhood obesity to the forefront of the Arkansas legislative agenda and resulted in the passage of Act 1220. When three streams, including problem, policy, and political, are combined, a policy window is opened, allowing to policy entrepreneurs to advance their goals. They documented factors that produced a system window and allowed entrepreneurs to enact comprehensive legislation. Such historical analysis together with the established Multiple Streams Framework serve as a roadmap for healthcare leaders to influence health policy (Craig, 2010). To this end, obesity is destructive not only toward the health of affected patients but also toward their economy, creating tremendous challenge to their family, and collectively to the entire society. Much more efforts and effective strategies are thus urgently required to resolve this glooming situation.

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