Less than a week after the “Obesity’s Impact on Iowa’s Economy and Labor Force” report by GlobalData PLC was released, the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative hosted a roundtable discussion, presented by Eli Lilly and Co., on Oct. 3 to talk about the findings from the study and next steps.

Business and government leaders, as well as nonprofit organizations, were invited to learn about the report, listen to a panel discussion and ask questions. One of the main findings from the study was that for 2022, excess weight and obesity reduced economic activity in Iowa by $5.7 billion.

“I felt like we had some great questions,” Jami Haberl, executive director at the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative, said. “I think, you know, we don’t have all the answers. This is a whole new area, and so I felt like we had a wide variety of different attendees that come from different sectors, and I think that’s what’s critical is it has to be a multi-sector approach to actually treating obesity and preventing it. To see that we could bring people already together from that multi-sector perspective made me really happy. And we’ll have to continue with that.”

The event featured a medical perspective from Leon Jons, a clinical associate professor of internal medicine-endocrinology and metabolism at University of Iowa Health Care; a policy and patient perspective from Catherine Ferguson, vice president of federal advocacy for the American Diabetes Association; and an employer perspective from Amy Wadstrom, chief operating officer for Vivid Clear Rx, a subsidiary of Hy-Vee. Jons, Ferguson and Wadstrom, along with Tracy Sims, executive director of corporate affairs for Lilly, and Dr. Jennifer Groos, a board-certified pediatrician in Des Moines, discussed ideas for next steps following the release of the report.

“I think conversations like this are remarkably important to addressing the disease state of obesity for several reasons,” Sims said. “One, we have to raise awareness of obesity as a serious, complex disease state. Second, these conversations help us recognize that to treat a disease state, we have to use evidence-based care, and we need health care providers to be at the center with the person who is suffering from obesity. And if we can take patient-centric approaches, we’re going to have a higher chance of getting the right therapy for the person and providing them the support that is necessary.

“I think, third, these discussions help us understand that there are several areas of obesity care that need to be modernized, and one is evidence-based care. The second is improving access to all forms of care, and that means, in many cases, that health policy and health practice have to be modernized.”

One of the first steps that was discussed that can be implemented immediately, everywhere, was changing the language that is used when talking about obesity.

“I think there are some great resources out there, like the Obesity Action Coalition,” Haberl said. “I think it’s first, how are we talking about it and looking at how can we talk differently about it, so that we aren’t stigmatizing. And I think a lot of that does start with visuals as well. When you think about the visuals that are typically used when representing obesity, they are probably not the most appropriate or sensitive, and so how can we start to talk more about obesity like we talk about other physical conditions, like heart disease and diabetes? We talk about those very openly and less in a stigmatizing manner. Hopefully, we can change that conversation here in Iowa.”

Read more from the Business Record about the “Obesity’s Impact on Iowa’s Economy and Labor Force” report here.