Experts discuss effective method for obesity prevention at 2010 PAS meeting

Childhood obesity is a rapidly growing epidemic, but questions remain as to who can best prevent it - the child? The parents? Society? Hear a panel of ethicists, social scientists, and obesity specialists as they discuss whether a societal or public health approach is the most effective method for obesity prevention at the 2010 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) meeting in Vancouver. The session takes place from 3:15 to 5:15 p.m. PT Sunday, May 2, at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Moderated by Robert Lustig, MD, University of California, San Francisco, and Thomas Wilson, MD, State University of New York, Stony Brook, the panel includes:

• Robert Lustig, MD, professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, University of California at San Francisco, will determine how to public health efforts must trump the prevailing attitude of personal responsibility in jump-starting obesity prevention.
• Daniel Wilker, PhD, Harvard School of Public Health, will examine whether third parties such as health providers, insurance companies and the food industry will respond to obesity prevention measures.

• Arthur Garson, Jr., MD, MPH, University of Virginia, will compare the similarities between obesity and other harmful self-destructive practices such as smoking.

• Laura Schmidt, PhD, University of California at San Francisco, will discuss how lessons from international evidence about what does and doesn't work for alcohol policy can inform US policies targeting sugar consumption and childhood obesity.