Diabetes and Preventive Care
I just read a Reuters story this morning about how much the treatment of diabetes is costing our country. It’s staggering! In 2005, the U.S. government spent $79.7 billion more to treat people with diabetes vs. what it spent to treat those without it, according to a study by the Mathematica Policy Research for the National Changing Diabetes Program (NCDP). That is about 12 percent of the $645 billion that the government spends on federal health care. According to the director of the NCDP, the country spends as much on diabetes as it does on the Department of Education, but no one is heading up an effort to control diabetes. He called for the government to appoint someone to lead the effort to fight this disease. Another group, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, echoed that sentiment, stating that 62 million Americans will die in the next 30 years due to diabetes.
What do you think the fitness industry can do to help in this cause?
Jennipher Shaver, our associate editor, is finishing a story on preventive care for our July issue. It will focus on how prevention is the latest buzzword with politicians and insurance companies. She’ll also focus on how the fitness industry can be a part of the preventive effort. If you have any comments related to this, feel free to comment on this blog or e-mail Jennipher directly at jennipher.shaver@penton.com.- Pam
Related Topics: Behind the Scenes
June 20th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
What can the industry do to help the diabetes cause? You mean the same industry that with one hand, smacks Bally’s for its continued contribution to the “used-car salesman” negative health club image stigma (Eye On The Industry, June 1, 2007), and then with the other, pulls Bally’s back up on the top of the Top 100 platform, while all along in between filing reports on the will-it, won’t-it bankruptcy saga swirling around that same company (and accountants get offended when they are referred to as being “creative”…). And this has been going on how long? Five years? Ten? Longer? And still the industry gives them the time of day? The point is this: The research on how diet and exercise can positively affect diabetes is undisputable and has been for the past ten years. The problem is up to now, there’s been a lot of effective preaching to the choir, but less effective preaching to those with, or predisposed to, this disease. I seem to recall the afore mentioned Bally’s making a “commitment” a few years back to do a 180 on its business practices and introduce a more medically-driven membership orientation at the same time. I think that lasted 6 months, or until the first shareholders meeting, whichever came first.
The industry is nortoriously short-sighted. Want to argue? Fine. Put a question in next year’s Top 100 survey asking how many clubs have a ten-year plan. Five year plan? Three? Or is their notion of planning trying to decide where they’re going to eat lunch tomorrow? Planning means a commitment of future resources (and like most everything, that all boiles down to dollars and cents). Imagine a club owner having this conversation with staff: “Forty percent attrition every month? Let’s not focus on that…let’s put a plan together to inform, educate and patiently lead by the hand those in our community who are at high risk for diabetes. And don’t be concerned with any other factors they might bring with them, be they self-esteem, family or economic-related, ’cause our plan is gonna cover all that and more. And then we’ll see it all pay off in a cadre of dedicated paying members who literally owe their lives to us and will become our new choir who will sing our praises far and wide. And it’ll only take 5 years to get there! Who’s with me?!”
Which is more likely to happen in clubs in the coming months, the above scenario or the hiring of a few hundred more “trainers” whose main mission is selling memberships today, not selling good health for the future.
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