Continuing its tradition of spotlighting the nation’s most pressing health issues in such presentations as “Addiction” and “The Alzheimer’s Project,” HBO addresses obesity
in THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION, helping launch one of the most far-reaching public health campaigns on this epidemic to date. THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION series kicks off with CONSEQUENCES, premiering on MONDAY, MAY 14 (8:00pm-9:10pm), followed by CHOICES (9:10pm- 10:30pm). The debut continues on TUESDAY, MAY 15 with CHILDREN IN CRISIS (8:00pm-9:10pm) and CHALLENGES (9:10pm-10:15pm), exclusively on HBO.
In the U.S., 68% of adults age 20 and over are overweight or obese, while 31.7% of the nation’s children and adolescents age two to 19 are overweight or obese.* Obesity
contributes to six of the ten leading causes of death in America, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and high blood pressure. Bringing together the nation’s leading research institutions, THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION is a presentation of HBO and the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and in partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.
“If we don’t succeed in turning this epidemic around, we are going to face, for the first time in our history, a situation where our children are going to live shorter lives than we do,” says Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Obesity-related health care costs about $147 billion annually, and, on average, someone who is obese costs $1400 more a year to care for,” notes Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “If the obesity trend continues, we’re going to face steadily increasing health care costs, as well as more lives lost to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, many cancers and other complications from obesity.”
To ensure the widest possible audience, HBO will use all its services, including the main HBO channel, multiplex channels, HBO On Demand, HBO GO and more. All films, will be available in English and Spanish and will also stream free of charge on HBO.com, as well as on multiple platforms by participating television service providers.
More information can be found online: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/