Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said the study confirms the obvious: Health clinics with more resources offer more types of programs. Likewise, "because they have programming in this area, they are most likely to get funds for more programming in this area."

He questioned the value of screening programs, which "are not a big part of the solution. After all, they are designed to find the trouble, not necessarily fix it." He added that obesity is often obvious ’ people can see it in a mirror ’ and does not require a screening program for detection.

"We should define what contributions health departments can, and should, be making to global efforts at obesity and diabetes prevention and control, and then distribute resources to make sure they can all make these contributions," Katz said. "Otherwise, some will be doing far less than is needed, and some will be doing more than what is truly useful."

SOURCE The American Journal of Public Health