Epidemiology and the Delivery of Health Care Services (3rd ed.)

As the obesity epidemic widens to all age groups and nations, chronic conditions increase in frequency, and populations grow in number, the costs of treatment will exhaust future health care resources. The only alternative is population-based m- agement emphasizing prevention, health promotion, and environmental modifi- tions. Dissemination of information on risk factors derived from epidemiologic studies to evoke individual, community, and policy change is a strategy in suppo- ing this approach