Creating Equal Opportunities for a Healthy Weight is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine's Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention in June 2013 to examine income, race, and ethnicity, and how these factors intersect with childhood obesity and its prevention. Registered participants, along with viewers of a simultaneous webcast of the workshop, heard a series of presentations by researchers, policy makers, advocates, and other stakeholders focused on health disparities associated with income, race, ethnicity, and other characteristics and on how these factors intersect with obesity and its prevention. The workshop featured invited presentations and discussions concerning physical activity, healthy food access, food marketing and messaging, and the roles of employers, health care professionals, and schools. The IOM 2012 report Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention acknowledged that a variety of characteristics linked historically to social exclusion or discrimination, including race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, age, mental health, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, geographic location, and immigrant status, can thereby affect opportunities for physical activity, healthy eating, health care, work, and education. In many parts of the United States, certain racial and ethnic groups and low-income individuals and families live, learn, work, and play in places that lack health-promoting resources such as parks, recreational facilities, high-quality grocery stores, and walkable streets. These same neighborhoods may have characteristics such as heavy traffic or other unsafe conditions that discourage people from walking or being physically active outdoors. The combination of unhealthy social and environmental risk factors, including limited access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity, can contribute to increased levels of chronic stress among community members, which have been linked to increased levels of sedentary activity and increased calorie consumption. Creating Equal Opportunities for a Healthy Weight focuses on the key obesity prevention goals and recommendations outlined in Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention through the lens of health equity. This report explores critical aspects of obesity prevention, while discussing potential future research, policy, and action that could lead to equity in opportunities to achieve a healthy weight.

This fully updated and revised 12th edition of the highly acclaimed textbook on health care delivery provides graduate and undergraduate students with a comprehensive survey of health care in the United States ranging in topics from the organization of care, the politics surrounding healthcare in the United States, to population health and vulnerable populations, healthcare costs and value, health care financing, and health information technology. Chapters provide thorough coverage of the rapid changes that are reshaping our system and the extent of our nation’s achievement of health care value and the Triple Aim: better health and better care at a lower cost. With an emphasis on population health and public health, this text includes a timely focus on how social and physical environments influence health outcomes. Prominent scholars, practitioners, and educators within public health, population health, health policy, healthcare management, medical care, and nursing present the most up-to-date evidence-based information on social and behavioral determinants of health and health equity, immigrant health, healthcare workforce challenges, preventative medicine, innovative approaches to control health care costs, initiatives to achieve high quality and value-based care, and much more. Designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students of health care management and administration, nursing, and public health, the text addresses all complex core issues surrounding our health care system and health policy, such as the challenges to health care delivery, the organization and politics of care, and comparative health systems. Organized in a readable and accessible format, contributors provide an in-depth and objective appraisal of why and how we organize health care the way we do, the enormous impact of health-related behaviors on the structure, function, and cost of the health care delivery system, and other emerging and recurrent issues in health policy, healthcare management, and public health. The 12th edition features the contributions of such luminaries as former editor Anthony R. Kovner, Michael K. Gusmano, Carolyn M. Clancy, Marc N. Gourevitch, Joanne Spetz, James Morone, Karen DeSalvo, and Christy Harris Lemak, among others. Chapters include audio chapter summaries with discussion of newsworthy topics, learning objectives, discussion questions, case exercises, and new charts and tables with concrete health care data. Included for instructors are an Instructor’s Manual, PowerPoint slides, Syllabus, Test Bank, Image Bank, Supplemental e-chapter on a Visual Overview of Health Care Delivery, access to an annual ACA update and health policy changes, extra cases and syllabi specifically for nurses, and a transition guide bridging the 11th and 12th editions. Key Features: Three completely revised chapters on the politics of health care, vulnerable populations, and health information technology Chapter authors with expertise in Health Administration and Management, Public Health, Health Policy, Medical Care and Nursing Expanded coverage on population health and population health management, health equity, influences of social determinants on health behavior and outcomes, health education planning, health workforce challenges, national and regional quality improvement initiatives and more Revised e-Chapters providing a Visual Overview of Health Care Delivery with image bank and Springer Publishing’s annual ACA update Audio podcasts provide summaries for each chapter and provide real-world context of topics featured in the news New Appendix on Overview of U.S. Public Health Agencies Access to fully searchable eBook, including extra e-chapters and student ancillaries on Springer Connect Full Instructor Packet including Instructor’s Manual, Test Bank, PowerPoint slides, Image Bank, Case Exercises for Nursing Instructors

Obesity affects 17 percent of children and adolescents and almost 36 percent of adults in the United States. Conservative estimates suggest that obesity now accounts for almost 20 percent of national health care spending. Until the obesity epidemic is reversed, obesity will continue to drive rates of chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Cross-Sector Responses to Obesity is a summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Obesity Solutions in September 2014 to explore models of cross-sector work that may reduce the prevalence and consequences of obesity. This report identifies case studies of cross-sector initiatives that engage partners from diverse fields, and lessons learned from and barriers to established cross-sector initiatives.

"Health care managers, practitioners, and students must both operate as effectively as they can within the daunting and continually evolving system at hand and identify opportunities for reform advances… Health Care Delivery in the United States has been an indispensable companion to those preparing to manage this balance. The present edition demonstrates once again why this volume has come to be so prized. It takes the long view – charting recent developments in health policy, and putting them side-by-side with descriptions and analysis of existing programs in the United States and abroad." —Sherry Glied, PhD, Dean and Professor of Public Service, NYU Wagner, From the Foreword This fully updated and revised 11th edition of a highly esteemed survey and analysis of health care delivery in the United States keeps pace with the rapid changes that are reshaping our system. Fundamentally, this new edition presents the realities that impact our nation’s achievement of the so-called Triple Aim: better health and better care at a lower cost. It addresses challenges and responses to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the implementation of Obamacare, and many new models of care designed to replace outmoded systems. Leading scholars, practitioners, and educators within population health and medical care present the most up-to-date evidence-based information on health disparities, vulnerable populations, and immigrant health; nursing workforce challenges; new information technology; preventive medicine; emerging approaches to control health care costs; and much more. Designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students of health care management and administration and public health, the text addresses all of the complex core issues surrounding our health care system in a strikingly readable and accessible format. Contributors provide an in-depth and objective appraisal of why and how we organize health care the way we do, the enormous impact of health-related behaviors on the structure, function, and cost of the health care delivery system, and other emerging and recurrent issues in health policy, health care management, and public health. The 11th edition features the writings of such luminaries as Michael K. Gusmano, Carolyn M. Clancy, Joanne Spetz, Nirav R. Shah, Michael S. Sparer, and Christy Harris Lemak, among others. Chapters include key words, learning objectives and competencies, discussion questions, case studies, and new charts and tables with concrete health care data. Included for instructors is an Instructor’s Manual, PowerPoint slides, Syllabus, Test Bank, Image Bank, Supplemental e-chapter on the ACA, and a transition guide bridging the 10th and 11th editions. Key Features: Integration of the ACA throughout the text, including a supplementary e-chapter devoted to this major health care policy innovation The implementation of Obamacare Combines acute and chronic care into organizations of medical care Nursing workforce challenges Health disparities, vulnerable populations, and immigrant health Strategies to achieve the Triple Aim (better health and better care at lower cost) New models of care including accountable care organizations (ACOs), patient homes, health exchanges, and integrated health systems Emerging societal efforts toward creating healthy environments and illness prevention Increasing incentives for efficiency and better quality of care Expanded discussion of information technology A new 5-year trend forecast

The prevalence of childhood obesity is so high in the United States that it may reduce the life expectancy of today's generation of children. While parents and other adult caregivers play a fundamental role in teaching children about healthy behaviors, even the most positive efforts can be undermined by local environments that are poorly suited to supporting healthy behaviors. For example, many communities lack ready sources of healthy food choices, such as supermarkets and grocery stores. Or they may not provide safe places for children to walk or play. In such communities, even the most motivated child or adolescent may find it difficult to act in healthy ways. Local governments-with jurisdiction over many aspects of land use, food marketing, community planning, transportation, health and nutrition programs, and other community issues-are ideally positioned to promote behaviors that will help children and adolescents reach and maintain healthy weights. Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity presents a number of recommendations that touch on the vital role of government actions on all levels-federal, state, and local-in childhood obesity prevention. The book offers healthy eating and physical activity strategies for local governments to consider, making it an excellent resource for mayors, managers, commissioners, council members, county board members, and administrators.

A Cambridge obesity researcher upends everything we thought we knew about calories and calorie-counting. Calorie information is ubiquitous. On packaged food, restaurant menus, and online recipes we see authoritative numbers that tell us the calorie count of what we're about to consume. And we treat these numbers as gospel—counting, cutting, intermittently consuming and, if you believe some 'experts' out there, magically making them disappear. We all know, and governments advise, that losing weight is just a matter of burning more calories than we consume. But it's actually all wrong. In Why Calories Don't Count, Dr. Giles Yeo, an obesity researcher at Cambridge University, challenges the conventional model and demonstrates that all calories are not created equal. He addresses why popular diets succeed, at least in the short term, and why they ultimately fail, and what your environment has to do with your bodyweight. Once you understand that calories don't count, you can begin to make different decisions about how you choose to eat, learning what you really need to be counting instead. Practical, science-based and full of illuminating anecdotes, this is the most entertaining dietary advice you'll ever read.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Cynthia Sass, New York Times bestselling author of S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim and coauthor of Flat Belly Diet!, introduces a new superfood that holds the power to whittle your waistline in no time. Called “pulses,” this unique class of protein-rich carbs includes lentils, chickpeas, and many varieties of beans. By incorporating just one serving of these supershredders into your daily meals, you’ll burn more fat, feel more full, and have more energy. The weight will come off immediately, and you’ll reap the many rewards of Sass’s Pulse Plan: lose up to 8 pounds in the first four days no counting calories eat carbs and still get great results (that’s right, they’re not the enemy!) enjoy over 100 delicious, satisfying, and affordable recipes adopt a less-is-more exercise philosophy focused on fun methods that don’t feel tedious or punishing protect your heart, lower your risk for type 2 diabetes and cancer, and improve your overall nutrient intake “My skin looks better and the dark circles under my eyes are gone. I feel great, and I’m happy with the amount of weight I was able to lose in thirty days.” —DIONNE, age 43 “I think the Rapid Pulse really did reset my system. Flavors became more prominent (I can actually taste the sweetness in tomatoes!), and I’m now eating less because I can pay attention and stop when I’m full.” —YADIRA, age 39 “Throughout the thirty days, I felt confident because I knew I was getting healthier and my body was changing. My husband also lost 10 pounds by loosely following the plan with me. He was surprised that he could lose weight while eating healthy meals that tasted great with bold flavors.” —AMY, age 28