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Obesity Task Force/Steering Committee Report Spring 2006

The ADA Board of Directors reaffirmed the selection of obesity/overweight as one of the continuing selected areas of leadership in the new strategic plan. The BOD accepted the Obesity Task Force/Steering Committee Reports from March 2003 and November 2004.

The charge to the Obesity Steering Group is to:

Facilitate coordination of efforts to address obesity throughout ADA and its organizational units.
Provide oversight and direction to selection and evaluation of new and continuing initiatives which address obesity/overweight.
Evaluate existing programs based on new leadership concepts identified.
Identify current initiatives that are not closely related to leadership concepts.
Identify new ideas and follow progress of obesity initiatives.

In January 2005 the BOD accepted the November Steering Committee report that identified three new initiatives to fill existing gaps:

Establish a consortium alliance focusing on behavioral change.
Establish an “American Dietetic Association” recognition program for weight management programs (to be used by payers and consumers to know that the program was comprehensive and effective).
Pursue planning the second Evidence-Based Research Priority Project to take advantage of the recently approved coverage of nutrition services by RDs in North Carolina for obesity and chronic diseases.

In addition in May 2005, the Obesity Steering Group forwarded a recommendation for a fourth activity which was approved by the Board of Directors to have ADA officially join the “We Can” initiative by the NHLBI as a partner with activities to be identified later.

The ADA Obesity Oversight Group met in December 8-9, 2005. One day of the meeting was a Joint ACSM/ADA Obesity Task Force Meeting.

The overarching vision for the Joint Task Force is to take the lead as a joint collaboration to address the obesity pandemic by synchronizing nutrition and physical activity information. The group formulated principles to forward to their respective Boards of Directors for approval.

Invited guests shared updates on obesity-related programs and initiatives from ADAF, CDR, ADA, and ASCM. As agreed upon at the 2004 meeting, annual meeting proposals were submitted to each organization. The session for ADA FNCE 2006 Program was accepted with modification and the session for the ACSM Program was accepted as submitted. The goals for these sessions are to ensure that attendees understand the need to address both nutrition and physical activity, provide recommendations within their scope of practice, and when appropriate, to refer clients to other professionals (e.g. registered dietitians or exercise physiologists).

Four Joint subcommittee workgroups presented updates:

Joint Adult Weight Management Position Paper: presented concept to ADA Position Committee, authors pending selection, goal to use evidence-based analysis, timeline of 18 months.
Client Referrals: consider links on both websites for other professionals, develop algorithms that articulate referral guidelines to RDs and physical activity healthcare providers.
Professional Development Workshop: both ACSM and ADA offer workshops. Consider developing workshops for non-credentialed providers e.g. school employees.
Criteria for Evaluating Weight Management Programs: identified several key considerations for development. Recommend that ADA and ACSM appoint a working group to develop the guidelines for a sound weight management program and then develop the criteria for recognizing programs.

The ADA Obesity Oversight Group continued to meet on the second day. They discussed the status of the four projects selected the previous year.

Establish a Consortium Alliance.
Develop a Recognition program for Weight Management Programs.
North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield Research Project.
We Can.
The Obesity Steering Group Task Force members also suggested items that would expand ADA membership’s awareness of ADA’s leadership activities in obesity and will be forwarded to the appropriate areas within ADA for consideration.

The Obesity Steering Committee forwarded the following ACSM/ADA Collaborative Efforts Guiding Principles for BOD consideration.

Members of both organizations agreed on the following four guiding principles for collaborative efforts:

Focus on bringing science-based evidence to their members.
Commit to acknowledging the link between nutrition and physical activity.
Focus on a multifaceted approach to support behavior changes related to nutrition and physical activity to promote optimal health and fitness.
Facilitate multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to achieve synergy to address both sides of energy balance.

The ADA Board of Directors was asked to review and approve the guiding principles and four proposed areas listed below during the February 2006 BOD meeting. The Obesity Steering Committee was asked to provide a more concrete description of the anticipated outcomes, costs and timelines for each of the four proposed collaborative work groups for the next BOD meeting. No action was taken by the BOD to approve the principles or activities.

The BOD asked the Obesity Steering Committee to explain why the only collaborative relationship planned at this time was with ACSM versus the other organizations that had been previously identified in last year's report.

The Obesity Steering Committee fully intended to expand the collaboration, however recognizes that considerable effort is required to effectively establish a working relationship between two organizations. Since the presidents and CEOs of these two organizations have had meetings, it was determined to move this collaboration forward with the intention of adding others later.

Concept papers with timelines and cost estimates that more fully described the four proposed collaborative projects with ACSM were developed.

Project #1: Joint Endorsement of ADA’s Nutrition and ACSM Physical Activity papers on Weight Management (FY 2006-2007 cost = $100)
Project #2: Client Referral Criteria and Decision Algorithms (FY 2006-2007 cost = $7,200)
Project #3: Criteria for Weight Management Programs (FY 2006-2007 cost = $4,300)
Project #4: Weight Management Professional Development for non-dietetics professionals (could not begin in FY 2006-2007, would start in FY 2008-2009 after Project #2 was completed)

Obesity Steering Committee budget request for FY 2006-2007 has been placed on the unfunded list, so there is no clear mechanism to provide ADA oversight if any of these projects are to go forward. Original budget submission was increased to cover the estimated cost of the additional projects.

The request for approval of guiding principles and any of the proposed activities will come back to the BOD in June 2006 if the obesity steering committee is funded for FY 2006-2007.

SUBMITTED BY: Molly Gee, Chair, Obesity Steering Committee/Esther Myers, Staff Partner

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