Helping Kids Stay Healthy

You probably have a benign habit that you can't explain — and you may not even remember when it started.

Maybe you wet your toothbrush before applying toothpaste, or wash your face first thing in the morning, or put your left shoe on first. You just started doing it one day, and now you've been doing it for years.

Habits are hard to break. Developing good ones at a young age is critical in helping to improve young people's health — and for the prevention of chronic diseases, also called noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Kids with good health habits can grow into healthy adults, but health education has to go further than teaching kids how to stop the spread of germs – students need practical tips on how to live healthy.

If you could give your middle school self a few pieces of advice, you might have done some things differently. And while we can't go back in time, we can make sure we're setting today's kids up for healthy futures.

To raise awareness of this important topic, we worked with educator and viral rapping sensation Dwayne Reed to create a fun video called "Stay Healthy" – aimed at inspiring young people to do just that.

Building a Healthier Future

The "Stay Healthy" video also highlights the launch of a new program from Abbott and the Abbott Fund called Future Well Kids. Powered by Abbott employee volunteers, the program encourages young people to take charge of their own health today by developing habits that will help them maintain good health their entire lives. The curriculum was developed in partnership with Discovery Education, the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content and professional learning for K-12 classrooms.

Future Well Kids teaches kids about NCDs, and how they can stay healthy and reduce their risk of developing chronic diseases later in life. Because developing habits requires action, our employee volunteers will encourage students to put their lessons to use by making simple changes in their own lives – such as creating their own nutritious meal plans, setting physical fitness goals, and differentiating between sound nutrition advice and online health fads.

The initial phase of Future Well Kids is launching with Abbott volunteers in select sites across the U.S., Ireland and Mexico.

Setting Goals

By the time kids finish the program, they'll have developed their own definitions of what living a healthy life means. But education doesn't end there. True to its name, the Future Well Kids program will give students the tools they need to pass on their knowledge. Abbott volunteers will invite kids to share what they've learned with their families, teachers and peers as they put their good habits into practice in their daily lives. Children are in a unique position to influence their families to make better health choices, and when students learn in a group, they have the potential to spread that influence across their community.

To learn more about Future Well Kids, see our news release.

Understanding Noncommunicable Diseases

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are chronic conditions that aren't contagious — you can't get diabetes from a person who has it, for example. But just because they can't be passed between people doesn't mean that their prevalence can't spread. NCDs are a growing and complex health problem; according to the World Health Organization (WHO), they accounted for 71% of global deaths and 88% of deaths in the U.S. in 2016.

The causes of chronic disease are complex, and everyone has a role to play in fighting chronic disease and building a better, healthier future. Many NCDs that affect adults — such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers — develop over time as a result of unhealthy lifestyles. According to the WHO, the four most common risk factors associated with NCDs are tobacco use, alcohol abuse, physical inactivity and an unhealthy diet.

Taking advantage of the classroom environment to educate kids and empower them to advocate for themselves from an early age might be the difference between developing an NCD and preventing one.

To learn more about NCDs, see our story. To learn more about Abbott's work to find new answers in the fight against NCDs, visit www.Abbott.com/FutureWell.