In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way of life in the United States. Especially in relation to health care. Hospitals struggled with a lack of beds, personal protective equipment, ventilators and countless other supplies. Nurses and doctors on the front lines, working directly with COVID-19 patients, were exhausted and frustrated with the ever-changing information on how to best care for these patients. Thousands of American lives were lost. The pandemic also exacerbated a multitude of other health issues, including one of our country’s most serious, and costly, epidemics: obesity.

While all Americans were at risk for being infected with COVID-19 during the initial stages of the pandemic, those with obesity were at even greater risk. At least 78% of patients who were hospitalized, required a ventilator, or died from COVID-19 were obese or had an obesity-related disease. A 25% reduction of the prevalence of obesity in the United States may have reduced COVID-19 hospitalizations by 6.8%, admissions to the intensive care unit by 10.7%, and mortality by 11.4%.

Even before COVID-19, there was an obesity crisis in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), obesity is the second leading cause of death in our country, with an estimated 300,000 deaths per year. And there are no signs of improvement. Federal data reports that the obesity rate among adults in the United States has increased to 42.4% from 30.5% since the year 2000.

Obesity rates are also on the rise in Colorado. Despite our state’s avid hiking and fitness culture, and being the healthiest state in relation to obesity, the rate of obesity in Colorado has been steadily increasing. In 2020, the obesity rate among adults in Colorado reached 24.2%. This is the highest rate of obesity in our state since 1990. We need to stop this increase to prevent further diseases caused by obesity and to keep Coloradans healthy.

So how do we fight obesity? As a nurse, I feel we need to start by changing the culture and language around obesity and recognizing it as a health condition. Obesity is not a personal choice. It is not a cosmetic problem or personal failure. Examining obesity as a health condition allows for opportunities to create comprehensive health-care interventions that prevent and treat obesity. For example, there are FDA-approved anti-obesity medications (AOMs) that have positively impacted people with obesity. The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American Heart Association and Endocrine Society have all recommended AOMs as a critical treatment for obesity.

The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA), a bipartisan bill going through Congress right now, will provide people with AOMs as well as the therapies they need to treat their obesity, which includes enforcing that obesity is, and should be understood as, a health condition. I know, from my experiences as a nurse, that decreasing obesity lowers the incidence of obesity-related diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and cancer. Passing TROA will save the government nearly $25 million in public health expenses over the next decade.

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to change the conversation around obesity. Enacting TROA will expand healthcare benefits, and acknowledge obesity as a chronic illness, so we can move toward a society that best treats our most vulnerable populations.

Kenneth Oja, Ph.D., R.N., is an assistant professor of nursing and a nurse research scientist in Colorado who assists nurses in conducting research to improve nursing practice and patient outcomes.