The goal of Michigan’s Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (NPAO) Program is to prevent and control obesity and other chronic diseases through healthful eating and physical activity. This goal will be achieved through strategic public health efforts aimed at increasing the number of policies and standards in place to support physical activity and healthful eating, increasing access to and use of environments to support healthful eating and physical activity, and increasing the number of social and behavioral approaches that complement policy and environmental strategies to promote healthful eating and physical activity.
The long-term success of the program will rest on its ability to leverage resources and coordinate interventions with multiple partners to address the program’s six principle targets:
- Increase physical activity
- Increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables
- Decrease the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
- Increase breastfeeding initiation, duration and exclusivity
- Reduce the consumption of high-energy-dense foods
- Decrease television viewing
The program also emphasizes reducing health disparities related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geography, gender, age, disability, and other factors.
Michigan’s NPAO Program encourages implementation of local and statewide interventions based on the Social-Ecological Model, a framework that takes a more holistic approach to the obesity problem, looking at all levels of influence (societal, community, organizational, interpersonal, and individual) that can be addressed to support long-term, healthful eating and physical activity choices. This “systems approach” to overweight and obesity helps communities to develop interventions that include a wide range of individual and institutional stakeholders.
ProgramsÂ
Healthy Weight Partnership
The Michigan Healthy Weight Partnership was established for the purpose of overseeing the implementation and evaluation of Michigan’s obesity state plan. Members include over 50 state, local, public and private organizations who assisted with the creation of the state plan and/or whose organizations are actively engaged in completing activities consistent with the state plan’s objectives.
For more information visit NPAO