Ready to teach the Eat Healthy * Be Active Community Workshops in your own community? Join us for a one-hour Webinar to learn how you can best implement the workshop series.

Date: Wednesday, September 12

Time: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Register now!

The Webinar will provide:

• Tips on how you can use the workshops to motivate individuals in your community to eat healthier and engage in regular physical activity
• Firsthand experiences from one pilot site instructor who shares ways she made the workshop a success in her community
• Ideas for planning a successful workshop series, improving attendance, and boosting group participation

For more information and to download the workshops visit www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines.

Every month in 2012, the US Department of Health and Human Services is focusing on high-priority health issues, and actions that can be taken to address them. The monthly series, entitled Who's Leading the Leading Health Indicators?, highlights a success story from an organization that has made significant progress toward addressing the featured health topic. This month, we're focusing on Healthy People's Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity topic area.

Most Americans do not eat a healthful diet and are not as physically active as they should be. As a result, the Nation has experienced a dramatic increase in obesity. Today, approximately 1 in 3 adults (34.0%) and 1 in 6 children and adolescents (16.2%) are obese. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, which are among the leading causes of death.

About the Leading Health Indicators (LHIs)

Healthy People 2020 provides a comprehensive set of 10-year, national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 contains 42 topic areas with nearly 600 objectives (with others still evolving), which encompass 1,200 measures.

In fall of 2011, the US Department of Health and Human Services launched the Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators (LHIs). The LHIs are a smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, and will be used to assess the health of the Nation, facilitate collaboration across sectors, and motivate action at the national, state, and community levels to improve the health of the U.S. population.

Save the Date!

The LHI Webinar on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity will be held on May 29, from 12:00-12:45 EDT. We will be answering questions via the Webinar chat feature and through Twitter (@gohealthypeople). Register now to reserve your spot.

How are you leading the leading health indicators on nutrition, physical activity and obesity? We would love to hear your stories and comments. Share them below, or follow the #LHI hashtag on Twitter to connect with your peers who are talking about this critical health topic.

April is Youth Sports Safety Month. To raise awareness about sports injuries among young athletes across the country, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and the STOP Sports Injuries campaign are looking at an evolving trend to increase outreach - social media. The campaign has had a Facebook and Twitter page since its inception, but campaign coordinators are now trying some different avenues.

On April 4, the STOP Sports Injuries campaign hosted its first ever tweetchat, which was hosted by Dr. David Geier. People from all over the country participated in the hour-long discussion about overuse inuries. Some topics included nutrition and hydration, education for parents and coaches, tips on preventing kids from playing through pain, and terrific ideas related to single-sport specialization. A summary of the chat is available online. 

With the success of the first chat, AOSSM and STOP Sports Injuries plan to hold these tweetchats on a regular basis. Twitter has demonstrated to be a great forum for parents, coaches, media, healthcare providers, and athletes to express their views and ask questions. Our next tweetchat will address concussions in youth sports. Please join us on April 25 at 12:00 p.m. EST in what we expect to be a lively discussion. You can follow along and contribute by using the hashtag #SportsSafety.

On April 17 we hosted a webcast about youth sports injuries. Speakers included renowned sports medicine professionals, including James Andrews, MD; Peter Indelicato, MD; Christopher Harner, MD; Lyle Micheli, MD; and William Levine, MD. Each speaker dicsussed various injury prevention strategies for parents and coaches to use. The event created an opportunity for attendees to interact - live! - with these top team physicians. Check back soon on the AOSSM website to view the archived webcast.

What are you doing to help promote youth sports safety in your local community? Please join us in supporting Youth Sports Safety Month, and help keep kids in the game and out of the operating room.