Elevated Medical Costs for Obese Fifth Graders in California and Texas

Finkelstein et al. (2014) estimated that an obese ten-year-old, typically in the fifth grade, will incur between $12,660 and$19,630 in direct medical costs beyond those of a normal-weight ten-year-old over a lifetime. PURPOSE: The purpose was to estimate the lifetime direct medical costs attributable to obesity for fifth graders in the two most populous states, Texas and California. METHODS: Body composition data from the Presidential Youth Fitness Program’s FITNESSGRAM® administered in California and Texas each school year from 2010 – 2011 to 2012 – 2013 were used. Data included information on 447,619 – 456,409 fifth graders each year in California and 296,887 – 337,514 fifth graders in Texas. The number and percentage of students in each of the FITNESSGRAM® body composition categories was calculated and those in the Needs Improvement – High Risk (NI – HR) were used for cost estimation. The number of students in the NI – HR category for each year in each state was multiplied by the recommended cost estimate of $19,000 to project the elevated lifetime medical costs attributable to obesity for each group of fifth graders in each state. RESULTS: More than 33$3 billion for each group of fifth graders in California and more than $2 billion for each group of fifth graders in Texas. CONCLUSIONS: When the percentage of obese fifth graders is extrapolated to the entire United States’ 4 million 10-year-olds, this results in more than$25 billion in elevated direct lifetime medical costs attributable to obesity for this 1-year age cohort. These estimates are for obesity and do not include the additional costs associated with overweight (i.e., FITNESSGRAM® Needs Improvement – Some Risk category). This information should be used to influence spending decisions and resource allocation to obesity reduction and prevention efforts

An Analysis of the Medical Costs of Obesity for Fifth Graders in California and Texas

International Journal of Exercise Science 9(1): 26-33, 2016. The prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States increased more than three-fold from 1976 – 1980 to 2007 – 2008. The Presidential Youth Fitness Program’s FitnessGram® is the current method recommended by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition for assessing health-related fitness factors, including body composition. FitnessGram® data from California and Texas, the two most populous states, over a three-year time span indicate that more than one-third of fifth grade students, typically ten-year-olds, are obese. Previous studies report that an obese ten-year-old child who remains obese into adulthood will incur elevated direct medical costs beyond his or her normal-weight peers over a lifetime. The recommended elevated cost estimates are approximately $12,660 when comparing against a normal-weight child who gains weight as an adult and approximately$19,000 compared to a child who remains at normal weight as an adult. By applying these figures to FitnessGram® results from California and Texas, each group of fifth grade students in each of the two states will incur between $1.4 and$3.0 billion in direct medical costs over a lifetime. When the percentage of obese fifth graders is extrapolated to the rest of the United States’ 4 million ten-year-olds, this results in more than $17 billion (accounting for adulthood weight gain) or$25 billion (not accounting for adulthood weight gain) in added direct lifetime medical costs attributable to obesity for this single-year age cohort. This information should be used to influence spending decisions and resource allocation to obesity reduction and prevention efforts

Meeting USDHHS Physical Activity Guidelines and Health Outcomes

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(1): 121-127, 2017 Current public health physical activity (PA) guidelines suggest ≥500 METmin/week of PA, with additional benefits beyond 1000 METmin/week (i.e., a dose response). Revised U.S. PA guidelines are scheduled for 2018. The purpose was to relate health markers (blood pressure, percent fat, BMI, blood glucose, cholesterol, and cardiorespiratory fitness) to verify the dose response for PA guidelines revision. 505 non-smoking participants self-reported PA behaviors and completed medical screening. MANCOVA controlling for age and gender determined the relation between health markers and PA. MANCOVA indicated significantly (P\u3c.001) different health markers of percent fat, BMI, glucose, and treadmill time as a function of PA. Post-hoc Helmert contrasts (1] \u3c500 METmin/week vs. ≥500 METmin/week and 2] 500 to \u3c1000 METmin/week vs. ≥1000 METmin/week) indicated that meeting the PA guidelines was associated with better health markers and higher cardiorespiratory fitness. Effect sizes were greater for contrast 1 than for contrast 2, suggesting a plateauing effect. Revised public health guidelines should consider achievement of ≥500 METmin/week to be most important, with additional modest gain thereafter. Revised PA guidelines should stress the importance of achieving 500-1000 METmin/week

The 2010 AOP Workshop Summary Report

The rationale behind the current workshop, which was hosted by Biospherical Instruments Inc. (BSI), was to update the community and get community input with respect to the following: topics not addressed during the first workshop, specifically the processing of above-water apparent optical property (AOP data) within the Processing of Radiometric Observations of Seawater using Information Technologies (PROSIT) architecture; PROSIT data processing issues that have developed or tasks that have been completed, since the first workshop; and NASA instrumentation developments, both above- and in-water, that are relevant to both workshops and next generation mission planning. The workshop emphasized presentations on new AOP instrumentation, desired and required features for processing above-water measurements of the AOPs of seawater, working group discussions, and a community update for the in-water data processing already present in PROSIT. The six working groups were organized as follows: a) data ingest and data products; b) required and desired features for optically shallow and optically deep waters; c) contamination rejection (clouds), corrections, and data filtering; d) sun photometry and polarimetry; e) instrumentation networks; and f) hyperspectral versus fixed-wavelength sensors. The instrumentation networks working group was intended to provide more detailed information about desired and required features of autonomous sampling systems. Plenary discussions produced a number of recommendations for evolving and documenting PROSIT

Experimental and Theoretical Studies of the Redox Potentials of Cyclic Nitroxides

(Chemical Equation Presented) The redox potentials of 25 cyclic nitroxides from four different structural classes (pyrrolidine, piperidine, isoindoline, and azaphenalene) were determined experimentally by cyclic voltammetry in acetonitrile, and also via high-level ab initio molecular orbital calculations. It is shown that the potentials are influenced by the type of ring system, ring substituents and/or groups surrounding the radical moiety. For the pyrrolidine, piperidine, and isoindolines there is excellent agreement (mean absolute deviation of 0.05 V) between the calculated and experimental oxidation potentials; for the azaphenalenes, however, there is an extraordinary discrepancy (mean absolute deviation of 0.60 V), implying that their one-electron oxidation might involve additional processes not considered in the theoretical calculations. This recently developed azaphenalene class of nitroxide represents a new variant of a nitroxide ring fused to an aromatic system and details of the synthesis of five derivatives involving differing aryl substitution are also presented

Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study

Objective: To examine prospectively the association between muscular strength and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in men. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Aerobics center longitudinal study. Participants: 8762 men aged 20-80. Main outcome measures: All cause mortality up to 31 December 2003; muscular strength, quantified by combining one repetition maximal measures for leg and bench presses and further categorised as age specific thirds of the combined strength variable; and cardiorespiratory fitness assessed by a maximal exercise test on a treadmill. Results: During an average follow-up of 18.9 years, 503 deaths occurred (145 cardiovascular disease, 199 cancer). Age adjusted death rates per 10,000 person years across incremental thirds of muscular strength were 38.9, 25.9, and 26.6 for all causes; 12.1, 7.6, and 6.6 for cardiovascular disease; and 6.1, 4.9, and 4.2 for cancer (all P Conclusion: Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes and cancer in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders

Advances in Measuring the Apparent Optical Properties (AOPs) of Optically Complex Waters

This report documents new technology used to measure the apparent optical properties (AOPs) of optically complex waters. The principal objective is to be prepared for the launch of next-generation ocean color satellites with the most capable commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) instrumentation. An enhanced COTS radiometer was the starting point for designing and testing the new sensors. The follow-on steps were to apply the lessons learned towards a new in-water profiler based on a kite-shaped backplane for mounting the light sensors. The next level of sophistication involved evaluating new radiometers emerging from a development activity based on so-called microradiometers. The exploitation of microradiometers resulted in an in-water profiling system, which includes a sensor networking capability to control ancillary sensors like a shadowband or global positioning system (GPS) device. A principal advantage of microradiometers is their flexibility in producing, interconnecting, and maintaining instruments. The full problem set for collecting sea-truth data--whether in coastal waters or the open ocean-- involves other aspects of data collection that were improved for instruments measuring both AOPs and inherent optical properties (IOPs), if the uncertainty budget is to be minimized. New capabilities associated with deploying solar references were developed as well as a compact solution for recovering in-water instrument systems from small boats