While politicians and pundits wage election-year battles over the threat of terrorism, some of America’s smallest citizens face another frightening threat: childhood obesity.
The Kansas City metropolitan area and communities across the nation are showing an overall increase in the per-centage of children who are overweight or obese. Nationwide, more than 12.5 million children and adolescents–that’s 17 percent of people ages 2 to19–are overweight.
The implications of this gathering girth are ominous. Overweight children and adolescents are 70 percent more likely to become obese adults. They’re also at increased risk to develop asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and sleep apnea, and to suffer the psychological effects of social stigmatization. 
The negative implications of an increasingly obese population extend to America’s national productivity and competitiveness. So says Steven K.Galson, M.D, M.P.H., the acting surgeon general of the United States, who made a two-day stop in Kansas City in early September as part of a nationwide tour. His campaign promotes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Childhood Overweight and Obesity Prevention Initiative by recognizing and showcasing communities throughout the nation that are addressing childhood obesity and its prevention.
“We can’t sustain ourselves economically or compete in the international arena if we don’t have fit, active, maximally productive people in this country,” Galston said. “As Surgeon General, I am deeply committed to making the prevention of childhood obesity my very top priority. We want to motivate everyone who influences children to join in the fight.”
National juvenile obesity statistics closely mirror those of the Kansas City area, underscoring the rising prevalence of childhood obesity across geographical areas. Among high school students in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed 12 percent were overweight. A 2005-2006 screening of more than 12,000 elementary school students on both sides of the stateline indicate that more than 40 percentwere overweight.
The numbers may be alarming, but the good news is that the Kansas City community, like others across the nation, is taking decisive action.
In a Sept. 4 address to students, faculty and medical professionals at Kansas CityUniversity of Medicine and Biosciences, Galson lauded local efforts, including Satchel Paige Elementary School’s Double Dutch Rope Jumping Program, designed to promote physical activity, and KCUMB’s Score 1 for Health program to promote heath and disease prevention for at-risk youth.
The 15-year-old Score 1 program partners local medical professionals with future physicians, dentists, nurses and other students in the health and medical fields to improve the health of Kansas City’s children. It is co-sponsored by the Deron Cherry Foundation. These talented teams provide free coordinated health screenings—which include height and weight calculations, dental evaluations, hearing and vision tests and physical examinations—to underprivileged and low-income children in the metropolitan area.
“Score 1 has touched 97,000 urban-core elementary school children in the greater Kansas City region,” says Karen Pletz, President and Chief Executive Officer of KCUMB.
“It’s an exceptional program in that it combines medical education with preventive health care and provides access to care for families and children who otherwise would be unable to obtain cost-free basic health screenings. One of the greatest opportunities we have in life is to engage in something greater than self. Score 1 is that kind of opportunity. It has been as meaningful for us as it has been for the many children that we’ve touched.” 
