By Grace Hew Len, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii - Obesity and tobacco use among U.S. military health care beneficiaries add more than $3 billion per year to the Department of Defense (DOD) budget in health care costs and lost duty days.
Access to high-calorie foods and a more sedentary lifestyle have contributed to a nationwide obesity epidemic. Today, more than one-third of adult Americans are obese, and a fourth of potential new recruits are unqualified due to their weight.
In response to these health concerns regarding military service members and their families, DOD initiated the Healthy Base Initiative (HBI), a demonstration project that examines select military installations’ efforts to support improved nutritional choices, increased physical activity, obesity reduction, and decreased tobacco use.
This week, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and a team of health professionals visited Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) to prepare the base for the Healthy Base Initiative.
JBPHH is one of 14 bases selected as pilot sites for the yearlong project, which seeks to catalog the smartest practices being implemented to fight obesity and tobacco use and promote health and wellness among service members and their families.
HBI is part of Operation Live Well, which aims to make healthy living the easy choice and the social norm across the Department of Defense.
In a recent message announcing the Healthy Base Initiative, Chuck Milam, principal director at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy and co-chair of the Healthy Base Initiative, said, “Our vision of success is an installation that provides an environment that makes healthy choices the easy choices, a place that encourages good nutrition, active lifestyles and tobacco-free living.”
Key to the success is leadership that is committed to an active, healthy lifestyle like Capt. Jeffrey James, commander of JBPHH.
"The Healthy Base Initiative could also be called the common sense initiative. It aligns what we already know about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle (good nutrition, regular exercise, no tobacco use) with more formal resiliency programs, such as the 21st century sailor, to help inform sound decision-making across a broad spectrum of subjects ranging from design of streets, sidewalks and crosswalks, to food options on base, to fitness programs offered to service members and their families,” James said.
This holistic approach is especially applicable to JBPHH.
“We recently completed a master development plan for the base that incorporates many healthy lifestyle features such as a more walkable/bikeable campus feel to the base, not to mention the fact that we have a climate that supports year-round healthy outdoor activities,” added James.
During their installation assessment, the OSD team members interviewed key mission and installation support leaders, profiled on-base programs and facilities, assessed focus areas such as food and health and wellness, determined capabilities to track potential measures and metrics, and catalogued existing installation and/or service-level healthy initiatives, among others.
Key partners include health and medical experts, commissaries and dining facilities, exchanges, education resources, and morale, welfare and recreation programs.
During the assessment phase, the team will create an HBI profile, collect data on installation or service best practices, conduct service member familiarization, and create an action plan based on installation needs and opportunities.
“We are excited to assess/measure our current initiatives as well as incorporate new ideas that promote a healthy lifestyle. The results will ultimately net us a more effective fighting force, all the while improving the lives of our families and reducing unnecessary medical expenses borne out of poor lifestyle choices,” James said.
JBPHH anticipates an installation-wide healthy base event to take place in October.
| Date Taken: |
08.09.2013 |
| Date Posted: |
08.22.2013 19:32 |
| Story ID: |
112432 |
| Location: |
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
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