Time To Get Serious About Health Promotion

WBUR's CommonHealth Blog
July 20, 2009

Call it what you will – health promotion, wellness, prevention….it’s all of a piece. The idea is to avoid getting sick by staying healthy – and it’s an idea whose time has come...

Beating back the trend in poor diet, fitness and unhealthy weight will mean changing policy and creating a new, supportive, behavior-changing environment in many venues throughout the state: in our homes and within our families, in schools, at the workplace, in transportation systems, in development practices, in food policy, and in our communities. That is what is spelled out in a new report, Healthy People in a Healthy Economy: A Blueprint for Action in Massachusetts, by the New England Healthcare Institute and the Boston Foundation.

The Blueprint lays out dozens of specific action items, including closing the excise tax loophole for snack foods and soft drinks, bringing healthy foods and more physical activity into the schools, supporting incentives for worksite wellness programs, and reimbursing physicians for promoting healthy behaviors...

Link to Full Article: http://commonhealth.wbur.org/guest-contributors/2009/07/time-to-get-serious-about-health-promotion-by-wendy-everett/#more-1247