Community-Based Healthy Living Medicine, With a Focus on K-12, Physical Education, and Nutrition

Childhood obesity is one of the country's most significant health problems. Researchers estimate that 32.2% of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 in the United States are overweight and obese (Skinner and Skelton, 2014). The prevalence of childhood obesity in 2011-2014 was 17.0% and extreme obesity was 5.8% among US children and adolescents aged 2 to 19years (Ogden et al., 2016). The high rates of obesity and diabetes, poor nutrition, and lack of physical activity in children and adolescents makes cardiovascular risk reduction in this population critical. There is a strong body of evidence that showed practicing healthful lifestyle behaviors can reduce the risk of these chronic diseases. The goal of this article is to outline the current research and evaluation with policy and practice efforts, and strategies to accelerate the translation of replicable nutrition and physical education interventions for successful implementation of Community-Based Healthy Lifestyle Medicine among children and adolescents K-12.