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VOA健康报道2024--Weight-loss Options for Children Are Hard to Get

时间:2024-07-19 02:42:33

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Weight-loss Options for Children Are Hard to Get

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

For many parents in the United States, finding help for an overweight child is not easy. That is because the most widely suggested treatment is not widely available.

Leading medical groups suggest intense behavioral counseling. These types of programs teach children and their families about easy ways to eat healthier and exercise more.

However, these programs have long waiting periods. They are often not covered by health insurance. And they require a lot of time. As a result, less than one percent of the nearly 15 million U.S. children who struggle with obesity1 get the recommended kind of care. That information comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.

Reporters with the Reuters news agency spoke2 with doctors, parents and other experts about the difficulties of getting such treatment for obese3 children.

The CDC and others have tried to expand insurance coverage4 for the behavioral counseling programs. But so far, that has not happened, doctors told Reuters.

"The coverage for these programs was never good, and we're not seeing any movement toward improvement," said Dr. Joseph Skelton. He is a professor of child medicine, or pediatrics. Skelton is also an obesity medicine specialist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina.

Obesity among U.S. children has increased from five percent in 1980 to nearly 20 percent today, CDC experts say.

Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy was approved for adults in 2021 and for adolescents in late 2022. The drug provides a highly effective way to lose weight. The drugmaker still cannot meet demand for the drug among adults. Each week, there are at least 25,000 first-time users of the drug.

A much smaller, but growing, number of families are seeking the drug for their adolescents, Reuters reported earlier this year. Many doctors and parents are unsure of using the medication. They do not know if Wegovy can affect a child’s development or create other long-term risks.

Programs that teach healthy choices

Ruth Medina of Holyoke, Massachusetts, was worried about her daughter, Jalainie. At age 15, Jelainie weighed over 90 kilograms. The family has a history of type 2 diabetes5, a condition worsened by being overweight. Medina did not want that to happen.

"…That's when I got scared," Medina said.

So, she wanted make healthy changes for her family and sought help. Jelainie's doctor suggested the healthy weight program at Holyoke Health Center. In this program, children and their parents meet with a food expert and a community health worker. Together they set individual weight goals, cook healthy meals, learn how to read food labels, and talk about healthy lifestyle choices.

Dr. Vinny Biggs runs the program. He said there is a four-month wait to get into the program. Biggs said Medina and her daughter’s treatment is partly covered by the state Medicaid health insurance.

At the family's first meeting, Jelainie prepared a rice and vegetables dish with her teachers. She and her mother both said they liked the healthy meal.

Jelainie has lost some weight. She started walking more, playing tennis and eating more fruits and vegetables. However, her mother still worries about the appeal of the many fast-food restaurants close to their home. For her daughter, they are tempting7.

"We walk by so many temptations," Medina said. "I want to do whatever I can to get her to a healthy weight."

Red light, green light

Dr. Thomas Robinson is director of the Center for Healthy Weight at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health in California. He said, “Many of us believe it would make sense to offer behavioral counseling along with the drug."

He added, "These drugs are very effective at reducing weight and health risks, but you don't all of a sudden adopt a healthy diet or become more physically8 active," he said.

With Stanford's lifestyle-counseling program, instructors9 give parents and their children long-established lessons about eating wisely. They use the colors of a traffic light to teach these lessons.

High-calorie foods, such as ice cream or even almonds, are "red-light" foods. They should not be eaten often. Vegetables are "green light" foods. Kids can eat as many green light foods as they want. Most foods, Robinson explained, are “yellow light” and fall somewhere in between.

Insurance issues

Health insurance does not cover Stanford's program. So families pay out-of-pocket or receive financial help from the hospital, Robinson said. The full cost of the program is $3,500.

Since 2022, the CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics and other experts have pushed for better insurance coverage of obesity counseling. In September, an American Medical Association (AMA) group of experts rejected one of those efforts. The effort was a request for the creation of a medical code for the intensive program. This code would help providers bill insurance companies for their services.

However, in a statement, the AMA told Reuters the application did not meet the group's standards. The AMA explained that a new code may not be approved by insurance providers if the programs include non-clinical services, such as cooking classes. Even if a new code is created, health insurers can still refuse to pay for medical services.

In a statement to Reuters, the CDC said that guaranteeing fair access to both obesity medications and lifestyle treatment is critical. That would give families more choices when deciding how to best support their child’s health.

And that’s the Health & Lifestyle report.

Words in This Story

counseling – n. professional guidance of the individual by utilizing10 psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes11

insurance – n. a contract by which someone guarantees for a fee to pay someone else for the value of property if it is lost or damaged (as through theft or fire) or to pay usually a specified12 amount for injury or death

obesity – n. a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body

pediatric – adj. of, relating to, affecting, or being an infant, child, or adolescent

adolescent – n. a young person who is developing into an adult

lifestyle – n. the typical way of life of an individual, group, or culture

tempt6 – v. to entice13 to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain

adopt – v. to take as one's own

calorie – n. units used to measure the energy value of food

clinical – adj. involving direct observation of the patient : based on or characterized by observable and diagnosable symptoms


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1 obesity Dv1ya     
n.肥胖,肥大
参考例句:
  • One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
  • Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。
2 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
3 obese uvIya     
adj.过度肥胖的,肥大的
参考例句:
  • The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了,不能算是健康。
  • Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。
4 coverage nvwz7v     
n.报导,保险范围,保险额,范围,覆盖
参考例句:
  • There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
  • This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。
5 diabetes uPnzu     
n.糖尿病
参考例句:
  • In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者,医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
  • Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。
6 tempt MpIwg     
vt.引诱,勾引,吸引,引起…的兴趣
参考例句:
  • Nothing could tempt him to such a course of action.什么都不能诱使他去那样做。
  • The fact that she had become wealthy did not tempt her to alter her frugal way of life.她有钱了,可这丝毫没能让她改变节俭的生活习惯。
7 tempting wgAzd4     
a.诱人的, 吸引人的
参考例句:
  • It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
  • It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。
8 physically iNix5     
adj.物质上,体格上,身体上,按自然规律
参考例句:
  • He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服,心绪也很乱。
  • Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。
9 instructors 5ea75ff41aa7350c0e6ef0bd07031aa4     
指导者,教师( instructor的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
  • He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份,被邀请到主席台上。
10 utilizing fbe1505f632dff25652a1730952a6464     
v.利用,使用( utilize的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • Utilizing an assembler to produce a machine-language program. 用汇编程序产生机器语言的过程。 来自辞典例句
  • The study and use of devices utilizing properties of materials near absolute zero in temperature. 对材料在接近绝对零度时的特性进行研究和利用的学科。 来自辞典例句
11 aptitudes 3b3a4c3e0ed612a99fbae9ea380e8568     
(学习方面的)才能,资质,天资( aptitude的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They all require special aptitudes combined with special training. 他们都应具有专门技能,并受过专门训练。
  • Do program development with passion. has aptitudes for learning. research. innovation. 热爱程序开发工作。具有学习。钻研。创新的精神。
12 specified ZhezwZ     
adj.特定的
参考例句:
  • The architect specified oak for the wood trim. 那位建筑师指定用橡木做木饰条。
  • It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。
13 entice FjazS     
v.诱骗,引诱,怂恿
参考例句:
  • Nothing will entice the children from television.没有任何东西能把孩子们从电视机前诱开。
  • I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land.我不明白,为什英国人要引诱我们离开自己的国土。

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