Healthy Weight, Physical Activity, Nutrition

Why Is This Important?

Maintaining a healthy weight is important because there is a significant linkage between overweight/obesity and chronic disease. Chronic disease impacts the individual due to the cost of treatment or management and the ability for one to complete everyday tasks. To have positive health outcomes, one should maintain healthy lifestyle behaviors. 

Why Is This Important?

Prediabetes is a condition where people have higher than normal blood glucose levels (mg/dl), but their mg/dl is not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Nationally, an estimated 88 million American adults have prediabetes, but only about 10% of them know it. African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asians, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders are at higher risk than non-Hispanic whites for developing type 2 diabetes (CDC, Diabetes Report 2020).  

In 2018, an estimated 2.4 million adults in North Carolina had prediabetes. In that same year, 12.1% of respondents to a Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey indicated that they had been told by a doctor or other health professional that they had prediabetes or borderline diabetes. Of those respondents, 39.6% were racial and ethnic minorities (African Americans: 15.2%; Hispanic/Latinos: 11.1%; and other racial and ethnic minorities: 13.3%). (North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, BRFSS 2018).  

In 2016, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 145 adults in North Carolina develop diabetes daily (Community and Clinical Connections for Prevention and Health, Fact Sheet 2019). Without lifestyle changes to improve their health, many people living with prediabetes are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes within five years (CDC, Prediabetes Fact Sheet 2020).  

Total direct medical expenses for diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes, prediabetes, and gestational diabetes in North Carolina was estimated at $7.7 billion in 2017 (American Diabetes Association). Implementing NC MDPP improves early detection and treatment of prediabetes and help slow the projected increase in type 2 diabetes prevalence and expenditure in North Carolina. NC MDPP is offered in Spanish and English and has adapted to a virtual format during COVID-19. 

Why Is This Important?

Cabarrus Health Alliance (CHA) is able to work with moms to provide the necessary support and care to have a safe and health pregnancy. When all the needs of the mother are addressed during pregnancy, children are born healthy and into a safe environment thereby contributing to a decrease in infant mortality rates. 

What We Do

“5210 is a community-wide plan to improve the health of families and children. 5210 spreads a common message throughout communities, where families work, live, and play. The 5210 message represents four healthy behaviors children should achieve each day. 

Parallel campaigns have been developed for military and civilian communities. The 5210 Healthy Together campaigns provide tips for a variety of people and places to help children meet the 5210 goals every day.”  

To access program handouts and learn more please visit the 5210 website  

Who We Serve

School-aged youth and their families as well as all school staff and administration.   

How We Impact

We support schools in implementing policy, systems, and environmental changes which support healthy lifestyle changes. Our challenge is to recruit all Cabarrus County schools by 2025. This effort has been supported by both the Cabarrus County School and Kannapolis City School superintendents. 

What We Do

The Lifestyle is Medicine program at Cabarrus Health Alliance has six focus areas which are: healthy eating/nutrition, physical activity, stress management, healthy relationships, sleep, and substance use treatment and cessation. Lifestyle is Medicine focuses on chronic disease management through skill-building opportunities and providing tools/ resources. By working with the clinic, Lifestyle is Medicine is able to ensure that participants receive medication for management alongside healthy lifestyle referral services. 

Who We Serve

The Lifestyle is Medicine program serves the community members that access the clinic at Cabarrus Health Alliance. Patients that are lower-income, uninsured, or have no insurance are the participants of Lifestyle is Medicine.   

How We Impact

Lifestyle is Medicine impacts patients by providing the structure and encouragement needed for people to start their own lifestyle journey. We also provide referral services to our food pharmacy, cooking classes, self-management of chronic disease classes, and walking support group. 

What We Do

The Minority Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP) at Cabarrus Health Alliance (CHA) works with community members to facilitate lifestyle change classes that are based on PreventT2 Curriculum by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Before the class, the participants receive an A1C screening. The participants then work with the lifestyle coaches through ____ sessions over 1 year.  

MDPP also conducts diabetes prevention screening events, makes referrals to Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES). 

Who We Serve

The MDPP program serves those in the community that is at least 18 years of age. The majority of those who participate are of underrepresented communities and qualify based on a blood test completed in the past year.  

How We Impact

Through marketing for prediabetes awareness and working closely with partnerships, the MDPP works with individuals to create lasting lifestyle changes that will positively impact the participants' health and wellbeing. 

What We Do

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a supplemental food and nutrition education program for pregnant and breast feeding women. This includes women who just had a baby who are not breast feeding, and infants and children up to age five.

WIC is the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. It is commonly referred to as the WIC Program.

Services Offered

• Healthy foods including fruits and vegetables.
• Nutrition education to help clients make better choices about the food they eat. They also learn how nutrition and health work together.
• Peer counselors to help provide breastfeeding support. We also have a breast feeding room, breast pumps, and supplies for our clients.
• Referrals to Health Care Programs and Public Assistance Programs.

Who We Serve

WIC is available to pregant, breat feeding, and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5. To participate, these persons must:

• Live in North Carolina
• Have a family income less than 185% of the U.S. Poverty Income Guidelines (to see the guidelines click here).
  • A person receiving Medicaid, Work First Families Assistance (TANF), or assistance from the NC Food and Nutrition Services automatically meet the income eligibiltiy requirement
• Be at nutrional risk. Examples are:
  • Abnormal anthropic or hematalogical measurements
  • Documented nurition-related medical concerns
  • Inadequate dietary intake
  • Conditions that predispose a person to inadewuate nutritional patterns such as: lead poisoning, migrancy, alcohol or drug abuse

If you would like to see if you are eligible for WIC benefits take the WIC prescreening tool by click here. 

How We Impact

• WIC reduces infant mortality. WIC connects pregnant women to prenatal care, provides nutritious foods and encourages health-promoting behaviors. These factors are linked to positive birth outcomes (USDA, 2012). 

• WIC saves public health care dollars. Women who participate in WIC are less likely to have pre-term or low-birth weight babies, contributing to healthier babies and reduced medical costs (Institute of Medicine, 2006). 

• WIC improves children’s health. Children who participate in WIC are more likely to receive regular preventive health services and are better immunized than other low-income children who do not participate in WIC (USDA, 2012). 

• WIC improves infant feeding practices and diet quality. WIC promotes and supports breastfeeding as the optimal infant feeding choice. In addition, revisions to the WIC Food Package have resulted in increased intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy among WIC participants (USDA, 2012; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2015). 

• WIC supports cognitive development. Research shows that WIC services can mitigate the harmful effects of poor nutrition during critical periods of growth and development, leading to lifelong cognitive gains (USDA, 2012). 

• WIC enhances community food environments. Revisions to the WIC Food Package, and thus changes in the foods available at WIC-authorized stores, have increased the availability of healthy foods for all individuals living in low-income communities (USDA, 2015). 

Information from: "WIC Makes a Difference" section, located at the Nutrition NC website.