Levels of Participation

Balance It Out: Arkansas ^SM contains 3 levels of participation for the communities it serves:

Awareness

• Reaches the majority of students and family members in the designated school districts through an awareness campaign of educational materials
• Highlights the importance of balanced nutrition and physical fitness

Education

• Focuses on prevention and wellness for at-risk families
• Encourages healthier eating choices and increased fitness awareness through Community Health Workers and school nurses
• Provides educational materials and special classes on healthy cooking, healthy eating, and well-informed shopping
• Expected to reach 3,500 people

Coaching

• Serves 300 Medicaid families who are faced with chronic illness and who are overweight
• Focuses more heavily on providing disease management in addition to prevention and wellness education
• Receives more intensive one-on-one health coaching to improve the families' overall health

Medicaid Participants

Balance It Out: Arkansas^SM will be offered to families in the Dollarway, Harrison, and Paragould school districts regardless of their insurance status. While participants will benefit from educational materials and classes, Medicaid beneficiaries will receive extensive health coaching because experience has taught us that Medicaid beneficiaries benefit the most from an extra level of care. Statistics show that the Medicaid population poses specific health care challenges and are a significant source of rising health care costs. For example, between 1998 and 2000, $180 million was spent on 11.5% of the Arkansas Medicaid population for the treatment of obesity and related conditions.¹

¹ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDE). Overweight and Obesity: Economic Consequences. Estimated Adult Obesity - Attributable Percentages and Expenditures, By State (BRFSS 1998 - 2000). Finkelstein, ED, Fiebelkorn, IC, Wang, G. State - Level Estimates of Annual Medical Expenditures Attributable to Obesity. Obesity Research 2004; 12(1): 18 - 24.