Lighten Up Iowa
 
Problem:
According to the Center for Disease Control, overweight and obesity may soon surpass tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.  61.7% of Iowa adults are considered overweight or obese and only 44.7% of Iowa adults obtain the recommended level of physical activity. 
 
Response:
Encouraging Iowans to eat more healthy (especially eating more fruits and vegetables and smaller portions) and be more physically active will be the most effective way to lose weight and maintain weight loss.  Getting people motivated to change their lifestyle habits is very challenging.  Lighten Up Iowa has been a statewide contest co-sponsored annually, January to June, by Iowa State University Extension, Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowa Games since 2003.  The program encourages adults to form teams, report monthly team totals on either mileage or weight loss or both.  The team concept tends to lend support and encourage people to be more accountable and more diligent to reach their health goals, not letting the team down.
 
With the help of County Directors, I provided news articles, newsletter articles, as well as some personal visits to Chambers, hospitals and Public Health partners to encourage participation in Lighten Up Iowa in 2005.  The Lighten Up Iowa promotion statewide also included brochures and videos that were made available to all counties. 
 
Impact:
Statewide Lighten Up Iowa (LUI) has 18,000 participants in 2005 compared to 8,500 in 2004.  In the 8 counties that I serve, there are 319 teams.  Last year there were about 125 teams.  Teams may be 2 to 10 people.  The approximate number of teams per county are: Greene 13, Hamilton 65, Hardin 14, Humboldt 85, Marshall 32, Tama 4, Webster 89 and Wright 17. 
 
ISU Extension is certainly not the only one promoting this program statewide.  In fact it was the involvement and lead taken by other partners that made Hamilton, Humboldt and Webster so successful in recruiting teams to participate. 
 
In each of these counties, the chamber, local businesses, and public health got involved by doing special promotions (in Fort Dodge, 6 businesses donated $500 each to pay for billboards to promote LUI).  In Webster County and Humboldt County, Extension was very involved in making the first contacts and getting the community behind these efforts as well as helping to collect the data each month to award winning teams.  Hamilton County was already very successful last year due to the lead taken by their chamber and in fact, became a model statewide.  In all 3 counties, local businesses and agencies support incentives that are given to monthly winners and announcements are made in newspapers. 
 
This is another example of how effective partnerships can be in the success of a program.    The contest is complete in June at which time total weight loss and mileage can be computed.  In the meantime, a significant number of people have been made aware of and are practicing what they can do to lose weight, be more active and be healthier.  These efforts, though they will not solve the obesity problem by June, are a step in the right direction to encourage better lifestyle habits.

Contact:
Paulelda Gilbert, Nutrition & Health Field Specialist
108 S 8th Street, Fort Dodge, IA  50501
Phone 515-576-2119;   Fax 515-576-6447
Email pgilbert@iastate.edu