ESSAY

Jeffrey R. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA; Robert B. Wallace, MD, MSc

Suggested citation for this article: Harris JR, Wallace RB. The Institute of Medicine’s New Report on Living Well With Chronic Illness. Prev Chronic Dis 2012;9:120126. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd9.120126.

In the United States, chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, and chronic lung disease account for 70% of deaths and 75% of health care costs (1,2) and have received attention in the professional and lay literature. Although efforts in managing chronic illness typically originate in the health care system, governmental and community-based public health organizations play an important role in helping people with chronic illness maintain optimal health. To help advance the chronic illness programs and policies of public health organizations, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), with the sponsorship of the Arthritis Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has produced a new report, “Living Well With Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action” (3). In this essay, we highlight findings from the report related to the consequences of chronic illness, the need for enhanced surveillance, the state of interventions and policies to decrease the effects of chronic illness, and the need for coordinated action in both health care and community-based settings. We close with a discussion of the report’s implications for public health organizations.

James S. Marks, MD, MPH; Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA

Suggested citation for this article: Marks JS, Lavizzo-Mourey R. Philadelphia Freedom. Prev Chronic Dis 2012;9:120182. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd9.120182.

The song “Philadelphia Freedom” became popular in 1976, the bicentennial of our nation’s birth. That was also about the time that the obesity rate in our young people began to rise (1). And it has done so inexorably since then — until now.

That’s what makes the report from Philadelphia so exciting. It’s the latest in a small but growing series of studies that point to the first signs of declining rates of obesity among children in places like New York City and California (2,3). In New York City, declines were seen citywide, but the largest changes were among white and Asian students, who already had the lowest rates (2). In California, the state had a significant overall decline, but progress was uneven. Although counties like Los Angeles, which had been at the forefront of making healthy changes, succeeded in reducing childhood obesity rates, more than half of the state’s counties showed continued increases (3).