An interesting article in the New York Times last week highlighted an inevitable phenomenon occurring in the world of public health…competition for dollars and attention. For years, smoking held the top spot as public health enemy #1, and along with this distinction came tremendous time, effort, and dollars spent in attempt to snuff it out. But in recent years, smoking has been edged out by big competition…obesity.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that obesity, along with obesity-related healthcare costs, seems to garner the overwhelming majority of health-related media attention. And as this article points out, the prevention and research dollars have followed suit. As an example, one major source of private funding for public health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who has spent two decades helping to reduce the nation’s smoking rate by almost half, has shifted their priorities in recent years to focus on childhood obesity. In fact, according to the article, the foundation spent nearly 15 times more on anti-obesity funding than anti-tobacco funding last year.
Some experts believe the shift in attention and funding is warranted, given that smoking rates have been driven down by previous efforts, while obesity rates have been rapidly rising. But anti-smoking advocates fear that the drastic shift will erode previous success while there is still much progress to be made.
The good news is, while there will always be competition for government dollars and research funding, individuals, families, schools and employers don’t have to choose. Rather, choosing to make overall wellness a priority means covering all the bases – including nutrition, smoking cessation, fitness, stress reduction and more. According to the American Heritage Medical Dictionary, wellness is “the condition of good physical, mental and emotional health, especially when maintained by an appropriate diet, exercise, and other lifestyle modifications.”
So by definition, wellness is an all-encompassing approach to health. Comprehensive worksite wellness programming allows participants to take positive steps in the areas where they struggle the most and rewards employers with healthier, happier employees, which translates to healthcare and productivity savings. So leave the competition for the sports field - choosing wellness is a win-win and one thing we can all agree upon!
