Greetings!

The Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance  has completed an important phase of its action plan with the release of a new academic analysis authored by a research team at The George Washington University (GW) School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). The report, entitled, "Re-visioning Success: How Stigma, Perceptions of Treatment, and Definitions of Success Impact Obesity and Weight Management in America", examines the disconnect between the mounting scientific data demonstrating the negative health and economic results of overweight and obesity, and insufficient public and private sector efforts to combat those results.

The STOP Obesity Alliance is a powerful alliance working to help change society's perceptions of, and approaches to, preventing and treating obesity and related health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The Alliance Steering Committee includes consumer, provider, business, labor, health insurance and quality-of-care organizations.

The newly-released report identifies three barriers to combating obesity in America, and it will serve as the research foundation for policy recommendations that we will release in the upcoming months.  The barriers include:

•  The definition of success: There is limited agreement today on what constitutes successful weight loss. The result is that people generally have unrealistic expectations of weight loss, and those expectations are often not focused on their individual health needs.
• Perceptions of treatment: With treatment results held to unrealistic definitions of success, many patients and health care professionals believe that the time and effort associated with weight-loss treatments are not justified by the outcomes.
• Stigma: Research shows that as obesity increases in prevalence throughout America, so do stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes. This stigma reinforces a perception that obesity is solely an individual, not a societal, responsibility.

Members of the STOP Obesity Alliance also welcomed Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, the 17th U.S. Surgeon General (2002-2006) and President of Canyon Ranch Institute, as Health and Wellness Chairperson for the STOP Obesity Alliance Steering Committee during their second Steering Committee meeting. After the meeting, Dr. Carmona delivered a keynote address at GW to students, faculty and health advocacy organizations, in which he discussed the national impact of obesity.  Highlights from his speech can be found on the Alliance Web site, by clicking here.

The Alliance Steering Committee also welcomed the fresh thinking and perspectives brought by its newest members, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Trust for America's Health (TFAH). 

I look forward to keeping you posted as the Alliance moves forth with our policy recommendations in the upcoming months. Please contact me or visit www.stopobesityalliance.org, if you have any questions regarding the research report or any other Alliance initiatives.