An Obesity Series, released Aug. 26 in The Lancet, features four papers and related commentaries from NCCOR’s Collaborative Obesity Modeling Network (COMNet) modeling teams. COMNet includes teams from both academia and government in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The following link lists the teams and their members: https://www.nccor.org/envision/networks_comnet.html
The Obesity Series was announced at a press conference at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The papers describe the reasons behind the pandemic, the economic and health burdens of the disease, and the changes needed to the obesogenic environment to stem the tide of obesity for future generations.
The Series received extensive international news coverage in the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia with over 630 stories published to date. These stories were printed in some of the most prestigious news outlets in the United States and United Kingdom, such as The New York Times, the BBC, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.
The headlines for these stories generally highlighted rising global obesity rates (e.g. half of adults in the United Kingdom and the United States will be obese by 2030), the increased need for immediate government intervention to stem the tide of global obesity, and obesity prevention efforts governments could take to decrease obesity rates (e.g., taxing sugar-sweetened beverages).
- The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/half-of-us-adults-will-be-obese-by-2030-report-says/2011/08/25/gIQAYthweJ_story.html
- The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/26obesity.html?_r=1
- ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/obesity-rates-projected-soar-report/story?id=14381466
To see additional coverage of The Lancet Obesity Series on major broadcast networks click on the videos below:
Work on The Lancet Obesity Series was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) of NIH.