Obesity is affecting the most vulnerable members of our community – children and elders – in some very serious ways.

The school nurse at our neighborhood elementary school reports seeing many children with diagnoses of diabetes and asthma at earlier ages. Ethnic background and poverty both correlate with higher rates for obesity-related health problems. Children in our school are at particular risk, as the school’s ethnic make-up is 1% American Indian, 49 % Asian, 6 % Hispanic, and 36 % African-American, and 93% of students at the school qualify for free or reduced lunch.

On the other end of the age-spectrum, the Hamline Midway Elders program serves community residents over age sixty. The program reports that some of the residents whom they serve have limited mobility, balance and strength, COPD, stroke, knee problems, and/or diabetes complications in part due to obesity and sedentary lifestyles. These health conditions necessitate important interventions including hospitalizations, temporary or permanent nursing home stays, physical therapy, and expensive homecare earlier rather than later. The same factors put these elders risk for falls, nursing home placement, and more.

The program also receives many calls from people in their 50s already having serious chronic health problems such as diabetes, fibromyalgia, and other obesity-related conditions making their daily functioning difficult. While the Hamline Midway Elders grant funding mandates that the group focus on those 60+, the group is concerned that there seems to be a lack of support and social services for these “older young.”