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CDC promotes workplace disrcrimination with new website
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Deb Lemire • 877-576-1102 • media@sizediversityandhealth.org
ASDAH urges removal of “Obesity Cost Calculator” from LEAN Works! program
REDWOOD CITY, CA—The Centers for Disease Control’s new Obesity Cost Calculator tool
and LEAN Works! program will increase workplace discrimination against overweight and obese
employees and especially harm people of color, says the Association for Size Diversity and
Health. The U.S.-based international organization strongly recommends reframing the program
and removing the tool from the CDC program.
ASDAH supports programming that promotes access to good nutrition and opportunity
for physical activity for people of all sizes, states ASDAH Vice President Deb Lemire. However,
she cautions, “the CDC ‘obesity prevention tool’ is a license for discrimination.”
By encouraging employers to input employee demographic data to estimate the costs
associated with obesity, the CDC is saying to employers that “overweight and obese employees
are costing you money,” Lemire says. “It won’t take long for employers to decide that the way to
‘save’ money is to get rid of overweight and obese employees and not hire any more.”
Minority populations have much higher prevalence rates of obesity than do non-Hispanic
whites, with the highest rates of obesity among African-American women. Therefore, ASDAH
President Dana Schuster notes, the size discrimination propagated by the LEAN Works! program
is more likely to impact minorities than it is non-Hispanic whites.
Perhaps even more troubling, ASDAH officials add, is that there is no scientific data to
support the CDC claim that those who are larger use more healthcare services—and it’s
impossible for the Obesity Cost Calculator to be accurate.
Data from a recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
showed that 51% of “overweight” adults are metabolically healthy and 24% of “normal weight”
adults are metabolically abnormal. Research conducted by the CDC’s own scientists has found
that “overweight” Americans are likely to live longer than those of “normal” weight. Recently
published studies of Canadian and Japanese populations have also found higher longevity among
“overweight” than “normal” weight people.
“Epidemiological trends are considered significant if there is a doubling of risk or more,”
says ASDAH Research Committee Chair Paul Ernsberger, Ph.D., an associate professor in the
Department of Nutrition at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. “Changes in cost are often
much smaller, and relate as much to the marketplace as to the physical characteristics of patients.
Alarmist reports, including those emanating from the CDC, add the obese to ‘the worried well’—
basically healthy but concerned people who drive unnecessary medical tests and expenses.”
“The key to reduced health care costs is the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices for all
employees regardless of weight,” Lemire says. “The CDC is doing a disservice to the business
community and to larger individuals by spreading misinformation and reinforcing prejudicial
stereotypes about ‘overweight’ and ‘obesity.’”
Ironically, she adds, those very stereotypes negatively affect the health of large people
through stigma-related stress and poor quality health care. Weight-focused health messages also
increase body shame, eating-disordered behavior and health care avoidance, particularly among
women of all sizes.
ASDAH is an international organization composed of health professionals, scientists and
activists committed to promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes.
ASDAH promotes the weight-neutral movement known as Health At Every Size, which calls for
size acceptance, an end to weight discrimination, and lessening of the cultural obsession with
weight loss and thinness.
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