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Report Shows DOD Contribution to National Prevention Strategy

  • Published
  • By Beth Schwinn
  • Health.mil
WASHINGTON --  Hundreds of service members and civilian employees are eating healthier and getting more exercise at the Defense Logistics Agency, one of 14 military facilities serving as pilot locations for a new program that aims to help service members and their families become more health-conscious.

The program is one of the success stories featured in the 2014 Annual Status Report from the National Prevention Council, which was released this month. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel serves on the council along with the heads of 19 other federal agencies.

"We are dedicated to promoting the well-being of all members of the defense community, the department's greatest assets," Hagel said in the report.

The council, established in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act, created a National Prevention Strategy for improving Americans' health and saving lives. Smoking and obesity result in more than 700,000 deaths each year in the United States, making them the leading causes of preventable deaths, according to the U.S. surgeon general. Tobacco use is the leading cause of premature and preventable death in the U.S.

The new report updates the progress federal agencies have made on last year's action plan for implementing the National Prevention Strategy.

The centerpiece of the Defense Department's plan is Operation Live Well, its long-term initiative to make a healthy lifestyle the norm among the more than 10 million members of the defense community, the report stated. The multiyear effort involves education and outreach along with demonstration projects such as the Healthy Base Initiative, which is being tested at 14 locations worldwide including the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where 93 percent of the 600 employees said the initiative has helped them adopt healthier behaviors.

The Healthy Base Initiative measures which programs are most effective, said Public Health Service Capt. Kimberly Elenberg, deputy director of population health at the Defense Health Agency in Falls Church, Virginia. The yearlong pilot project was launched last fall.

The effort to promote a healthy lifestyle is intended to save not just lives, but also money. The Department of Defense spends more than $3 billion per year on weight- and smoking-related health problems among its beneficiaries at a time when the department's budget is shrinking.

"We've got to get obesity and tobacco use under control," Elenberg said.

For that reason, Operation Live Well's Healthy Base Initiative focuses on nutrition, physical activity and tobacco cessation. DoD officials want to make it easier for service members, retirees, DoD civilian employees and their families to make healthy choices. For instance, Elenberg said, food trucks on military bases could carry toothpicks, gum and sunflower seeds - things that former smokers typically use to replace cigarettes. Likewise, the food at cafeterias can be shifted around so that patrons see the healthy options first.

The hope is that DoD officials will be able to address the root causes of unhealthy lifestyles and steer military community members on a path to a lifetime of wellness.