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Shaping America's Youth Welcomes CIGNA as Corporate Partner

Initiative Dedicated to Promoting Childhood Activity and Nutrition

Shaping America's Youth (SAY), a national cross-sector initiative focused on promoting childhood activity and nutrition, today announced that CIGNA, a leading employee health benefits company, has joined as a corporate partner. SAY is an initiative of Shaping America's Health: Association for Weight Management and Obesity Prevention. CIGNA joins current partners Nike, McNeil Nutritionals, a Johnson & Johnson company, Campbell Soup Company, FedEx and Cadbury Schweppes in SAY, which is developing a National Action Plan to address childhood overweight and inactivity.

"Our nation currently faces an alarming increase in childhood obesity, with over 15% of school-age children overweight. As a leading national provider of employer-sponsored health benefits in the U.S., CIGNA feels a responsibility to help families ensure the health and well-being of our children -- tomorrow's workforce," said Andrea Gelzer, M.D, Senior Vice President of Clinical Public Affairs at CIGNA. "We are proud to work with Shaping America's Youth to help create a national dialogue on the importance of healthy eating and nutrition starting with infants and toddlers."

In addition to supporting Shaping America's Youth, CIGNA has been making childhood obesity a priority for many years. CIGNA has developed innovative programs to improve and maintain health and reduce costs with the approach of preventing and treating obesity and incorporating evidence-based medical practices, wellness programs and social support. These programs are designed to help improve health care quality, reduce variations in care and empower customers, thereby reducing costs.

"CIGNA offers a tremendous perspective to the SAY initiative through its development of tools and support of pediatricians and family practitioners in breaching the topic of obesity with patients and parents," said David McCarron, MD, FACP and Executive Director of Shaping America's Youth. "SAY has always focused on a cross-sector approach to addressing the growing problem of overweight children and CIGNA's support helps us to bridge our efforts into both the workplace and pediatric offices."

In 2003, SAY's launch was joined by U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona and the American Academy of Pediatrics. It included a national cross-sector survey to identify current programs and efforts to understand and address the problem of sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets in America's children. In addition, SAY is now conducting a series of 21st Century Town Meetings across the U.S. over the next year to gather grassroots, community input into the development of a National Action Plan. The first meeting will be held in Memphis, TN on Saturday, January 21, 2006 and is hosted by Healthy Memphis Common Table and directed by AmericaSpeaks.

About CIGNA

As a Business of Caring, CIGNA (NYSE: CI) provides employers with benefits, expertise and services that improve the health, well-being and productivity of their employees. Serving millions of customers, clients and members in the U.S. and around the globe, CIGNA's operating subsidiaries offer a full portfolio of medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy and vision care benefits and group life, accident and disability insurance. For more information, go to http://www.cigna.com/.

About Shaping America's Youth

Shaping America's Youth is an initiative of Shaping America's Health: Association for Weight Management and Obesity Prevention (AWMOP), an organization that seeks to prevent excess weight and obesity and facilitate scientific understanding of weight management. For more information about AWMOP, visit www.obesityprevention.org or call (703) 253-4808. SAY was initially launched in November 2003 in coordination with the office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academic Network, and the Nutrition Department of the University of California at Davis. Corporate partners NIKE, McNeil Nutritionals, a Johnson & Johnson company, Campbell Soup Company, FedEx Corporation, Cadbury Schweppes and CIGNA. For more information about SAY, go to http://www.shapingamericasyouth.org.

Distributed by Market Wire