As a pre-med student and biology major, Fisk University junior Contessa Davis has learned largely through volunteering as a Student Health Ambassador in public health initiatives that it often takes the dedicated work of “door-to-door canvassing” and other direct communication with individuals to persuade them to adopt healthy lifestyles.
“The bottom line is that, whether it’s research or interventions to help individuals learn about healthy eating, the goal is to decrease the health disparities within our communities,” she says.
This spring, Davis will be among a number of Fisk students and staff participating in an obesity awareness campaign at the Nashville-based historically Black private university. Last week, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) announced that Fisk and four other historically Black institutions are part of a grant program aimed at the schools educating their respective campus communities about the dangers of obesity. In addition to Fisk, the campaigns are under way at Tennessee State University in Nashville, LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Knoxville College in Knoxville and Lane College in Jackson.
Lesia Walker, director of the TDH Office of Minority Health and Disparities Elimination, said the goals of “these obesity awareness campaigns are to educate college students and others about the problems associated with being overweight or obese, and to engage them in activities fostering changes to improve lifelong health.”
“Statistics show a disproportionate number of African Americans are either overweight or obese, and we have to start reaching people with important messages earlier in life to make a difference,” Walker said in a statement.
Tennessee officials report that in 2011 the state had the sixth-highest rate of adult overweight and obesity in the U.S. at 66.5 percent. There are significant racial and ethnic disparities in the prevalence of obesity. Roughly two of every three Black non-Hispanic adults in Tennessee are overweight or obese. Black non-Hispanic women have the highest rate of obesity among any race or gender group, with one of every two Black women in Tennessee being obese, according to the TDH. Nationally, more than one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
For African-Americans who disproportionately suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, certain cancers, heart attacks and heart and kidney failure, extra pounds can contribute to the severity of these adverse conditions. Additional weight also leads to higher health care costs, according to the TDH.
