Thread: Feds Spend $1.7 Million on Exercise Program for Refugees

‘Community partners’ go into mosques to talk about physical activity in Minnesota

March 2, 2016 5:00 am
Elizabeth Harrington

The National Institutes of Health is spending over $1.6 million on an exercise program for immigrants and refugees, which is sending “community partners” into mosques to talk about physical activity.

“Healthy Immigrant Families: Working Together to Move More and to Eat Well” is an ongoing five year study trying to create a “sustainable, socio-culturally appropriate” physical activity initiative for refugees in Minnesota.

The researchers claim that immigrants and refugees are healthier than Americans when they get to the United States, and are concerned refugees will assimilate and adopt the eating habits of Americans.

“Across many measures, immigrant and refugee populations arrive to the US healthier than the general population, but the longer they reside in the US, the more they approximate the cardiovascular risk profiles of the general population,” the grant states. “These declines are mediated, in part, by less physical activity and lower dietary quality upon immigration among both adults and their children.”

The project is developing a “physical activity and nutrition intervention” for refugees led by trained “Family Health Promoters.”

“This project will broadly explore the efficacy of community participation in the design and implementation of an intervention to improve physical activity and nutrition among a demographic whose health is critical to the future of this country,” the grant said. “Given that over one million immigrants and refugees arrive in this country each year, the potential impact of this work on public health is considerable.”

The project, which began in 2012 and will continue through November, has received $1,679,030 from taxpayers. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., is conducting the study.

While the government is concerned about the eating habits and exercise levels of refugees, polling shows the majority of Americans are worried about the screening process of Syrian refugees after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November.

The Obama administration recently signaled it wants to increase the number of Syrian refugees coming to the United States on top of the 10,000 refugees President Obama ordered the government to accept this fiscal year.

Over 3,300 refugees arrived in Minnesota in 2014 mainly from Somalia, Burma, and Iraq.

Contrary to the notion that refugees are healthier than Americans, many had health problems, according to state records. Twenty-two percent who directly settled in Minnesota had Tuberculosis; 15 percent had a parasitic infection; 7 percent elevated blood lead; 5 percent had Hepatitis B; and 1 percent had Syphilis.

Among secondary arrivals, or refugees who originally resettled to another state in the United States before moving to Minnesota, 32 percent had Tuberculosis, and 12 percent had a parasitic infection.

The government-funded project has sent “community partners” into mosques to talk about healthy eating and exercise.

Published results for the project revealed that participants were recruited at a local mosque, where focus groups were then held for Somali men to “discuss things that are difficult about being physically active.”

Reasons Somali men gave for not exercising included “embarrassment about using unfamiliar clothes and exercise techniques in public.”

“Somali men share information on a daily basis at the Mosque, coffee shops, and markets,” the researchers said. “Success stories about a holistic health program may inspire community members to participate.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-sp...-for-refugees/

Worry refugees will adopt ‘Big Mac’ culture

By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Thursday, March 3, 2016

The National Institutes of Health is spending nearly $1.7 million to prevent immigrants and refugees from adopting our ‘Big Mac’ culture.

The program sends “community partners” into mosques in Minnesota to host talks about physical activity and nutrition even though most refugees and immigrants tend to be healthier than Americans.

Spending watchdogs say the grant is an example of NIH’s nanny programs gone too far and say that Americans, including refugees and immigrants who hope to assimilate, should be able to work with their own families and communities to maintain their own healthy lifestyles.

“NIH funding of a program to tell immigrants how to eat and exercise is the definition of a bloated nanny state. How come NIH always complains it doesn’t have enough funding to study major diseases, but then it spends money on wasteful programs like this?” said Chris Edwards, a federal budget analyst at the Cato Institute.

“It is appropriate for local communities and charitable groups to ease the transition to American society for refugees, but the federal government should stay out because its plate is full with truly national issues,” Mr. Edwards added.

For spending nearly $2 million of on another health welfare program instead of allocating funds for broad scientific research, NIH wins this week’s Golden Hammer; a weekly distinction awarded by The Washington Times highlighting examples of wasteful or questionable federal tax spending.

NIH defended the grant saying it supported their public health mission because immigrants make up a growing part of the U.S. population that is succumbing to poor dietary habits after assimilation.

“Immigrant and refugee populations coming to the United States are usually healthier than the general U.S. population. However, over time they develop cardiovascular risk profiles, including physical inactivity, sedentary behaviors and unhealthy dietary practices and diet quality that can lead to cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of mortality in the U.S.” an agency statement to The Washington Times said.

“With more than one million immigrants and refugees arriving in the United States annually, early intervention to reduce behavioral risk factors is crucial” the statement said.

The program, called “Healthy Immigrant Families: Working Together to Move More and to Eat Well,” launched in 2012 and set to end in November aims to create a “sustainable, socio-culturally appropriate physical activity initiative for refugees in Minnesota.”

Published results from the project reveal that most refugees already know the importance of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle, but many said they had found themselves succumbing to American “fast food culture,”

“If anything it appears many refugee populations could teach longtime residents a thing or two about diet or exercise,” said Pete Sepp, President of the National Taxpayers Union.

He argued that instead of spending tax money on community education programs, the government should focus on giving refugees and businesses in their communities the ability to better meet local customers’ food and exercise needs.

“That means removing the tax and regulatory barriers to start-ups. Doing so will cost taxpayers nothing. In fact it will strengthen the economy, introduce more people to the American Dream, and even help to bring in more tax revenues from the additional business activity,” Mr. Sepp said.

More than 3,300 refugees arrived in Minnesota in 2014 alone. Most of them hailed from Somalia, Burma and Iraq.

Although those refugees generally have better nutritional habits than Americans when they arrive, many arrive with ailments. According to state records, 22 percent of refugees who directly settled in Minnesota had tuberculosis, 15 percent had parasitic infections; 7 percent had elevated levels of lead in their blood, 5 percent had hepatitis B and 1 percent had syphilis.

One of the biggest challenges refugees faced when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the U.S. was a lack of confidence in their ability to fit in to American culture.

In another study, published in the American Journal of Men’s Health, Somali men who participated in focus groups said they did not always exercise because they felt embarrassed about “using unfamiliar clothes and exercise techniques in public.”

Richard Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, argued that NIH’s program actually creates a barrier to assimilation refugees.

“The assimilation of the large Somali Muslim refugee community should be a goal of the United States government, yet NIH is spending money virtually taking the Big Macs right out of their mouths and lecturing them on doing sit ups,” Mr. Manning said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-immigrants-i/