Scorecard for Obesity Priority Area of the AR State Health Improvement Plan

State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) 2021-2025

OBESITY

This Scorecard describes a body of work to affect change to obesity as part of the Arkansas State Health Improvement (AR SHIP). It represents the collaborative decision making of stakeholders committed to advancing health outcomes in the state, including state agencies, health care systems, higher education institutions, non-profit entities, and even business sector leadership.

Stakeholders are using the Results-Based Accountability (RBA) method in developing and implementing the AR SHIP. RBA uses ends to means thinking to identify the condition of well-being desired, known as a result. Stakeholders then identify a whole population metric - known as an indicator - to quantify progress for a result.

Stakeholders engage in data driven decision making on indicator data to identify appropriate strategies that can positively affect change on trend line data. Finally, a second type of metric known as a performance measure is developed for the strategy/ies. There are three types of performance measures - 1) How much service is provided? 2) How well is the service provided? 3) Is anyone better off? The performance measures will help stakeholders to understand the impact generated from a strategy.

Obesity is associated with major causes of death and disability, and its effect on predisposing individuals to the development of type 2 diabetes is so strong that the onset of this disease now is occurring in childhood. In the United States alone, one-third of adults are now obese, and the prevalence of obesity among children has risen from 5 to 17 percent in the past 30 years. . In economic terms, the estimated annual cost of obesity-related illness based on data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2000-2005 is $190.2 billion (in 2005 dollars), or nearly 21 percent of annual medical spending in the United States.