Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
QCS Managing Editor
The Quay County Health Council has decided to apply for grants designed to help the county begin a fight against obesity.
The council decided to apply for a Healthy People, Healthy Places grant from the Con Alma Health Foundation, a New Mexico health advocacy group, that could help establish walking paths or “prescription trails,” measured routes on city sidewalks and streets, to promote walking in areas throughout the city. The decision was made on Sept. 4.
Quay County ranked at the bottom of New Mexico’s 32 counties in health outcomes in a recent Robert Woods Johnson Foundation study. Quay County’s high poverty rate--nearly one in four residents is poor, and its obesity rate--nearly one in four adults is obese and one in three are physically inactive, are key factors in Quay County’s bottom ranking. In Quay County, the foundation reports, 28 percent of adults smoke, and 25 percent are obese.
Designated walking areas would promote physical activity, which, along with good nutrition, would help prevent and reduce obesity among Quay County residents, council members agreed.
The health council also agreed it would try to get large employers, including the the Tucumcari city government, Quay County government and Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital to enact policies that would encourage exercise, such as allowing 30 minutes of break time each day for employees to take walks.
Designated walking trails were one suggestion from community volunteers who participated in a study of the availability of resources that promote good nutrition and opportunities for exercise in the city.
The volunteers’ observations were part of a six-state effort that originated with Oregon State University to confront the causes of childhood obesity in rural communities in western U.S.
Obesity in rural communities across the U.S. has been recognized as a significant problem by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dr. Deborah Johns, the OSU assistant professor who launched the anti-obesity effort, said. The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Johns a $4.8 million grant to conduct the six-state effort.
Alida Brown, coordinator for the Quay County Health Council, said obesity was at the top of a list of four priorities that the health council agreed upon as targets of their efforts for the coming year. The other three were substance abuse, teen pregnancy and access to prenatal care.