Childhood Obesity Interventions

Childhood obesity is a major public health epidemic which has significantly risen over the past three decades and there is no chance in sight of slowing it down unless real action is taken. This major health crisis continues to reduce individuals’ quality of life and has caused severe health problem like heart disease which is the leading cause of death in the United States and around the world. In most cases, obese children grow up to be an obese adult. The prevalence of childhood obesity can be addressed through education initiatives such as school prevention programs because children spent a majority of their time outside of the home at school, therefore school provides a great opportunity to educate and improve a child’s health at an ideal point before the problem gets worst. My paper will focus on childhood obesity prevention in Hill Top Middle school Lodi, New Jersey.

Childhood obesity is a huge problem facing America today. It’s like an epidemic, spreading across America at alarming rates. Just in the past 30 years, childhood obesity rates have more than doubled among children and quadrupled among adolescents. Today, it has been estimated that one in every six children or adolescents is obese ("Childhood Obesity Facts”). And if things don’t change soon, those numbers will just keep rising. This isn’t a problem that we can leave up to children to deal with themselves. Parents and adults need to take responsibilities for children’s health and futures. Children or adolescents who have a body mass index of over 30 are considered to be obese. Too much body fat can lead to many negative

Many Americans are suffering from nutrition issues. There are approximately 12.5 million children and adolescents aged 2-19 years that are obese (CDC). The proper health and nutrition for children is very critical to their growth and development. The media and its promotion of junk food is one way that affects obese children. Within this paper, I will discuss the long and short term impacts of obesity on children, their growth and development, describe a specific child who is affected by obesity, and give three ways to combat obesity that involves collaboration among schools, families, and communities.

Aim: The purpose of this literature review was to evaluate whether overweight and obesity interventions in pediatric primary care result in a decreased BMI and improved lifestyle behaviors compared to children without these interventions.

This section of the evaluation describes the population and sample, sampling procedures, instrumentation, data collection procedures, and analysis process of the evaluation. Given the enormity of the obesity epidemic, the question arises as to where efforts should be focused to most effectively address to the problem. The most effective strategy to combat the obesity epidemic would be to develop and employ prevention and intervention plan targeted towards children and adolescents. As it has been found that behavioral change is an essential component of both prevention and management programs for childhood obesity, we identify this age group as these are the formative years in setting the foundation for better life choices. By targeting this group, research has found that they are far more receptive and responsive to efforts directed at changing behavior, increases the likelihood that positive results will be achieved. In this effort we have gathered quantitative and qualitative data that has produced the best methods for this evaluation; and it will enable further design and development of other programs and initiatives at the conclusion of this assessment.

Childhood obesity is growing very rapidly all over the world. Childhood obesity can go further into adulthood. Obesity causes different kinds of health problems such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It has psychological effects. For example, obese children have lower self-esteem, negative body image and suffer from depression and poor academic performance. There are many factors that result in obesity. They have unhealthy eating style, lack of physical activity are the main factors for obesity. Frequent consumption of high calorie foods like fast foods, fatty and sugary foods also contribute to weight gain. Playing games and watching TV for long hours also prevent children from having regular physical activities. In this literature review different intervention studies are investigated to see how effective they are to reduce childhood obesity.

A serious health problem that is slowly taking of the United States is childhood obesity. Obesity is weight that is higher than what is considered a healthy weight for a given height. Obesity is a great example of a current health problem that can relate to the three prevention strategies.

Childhood obesity is now a serious problem for many children and adolescents in the world. The increase of childhood obesity is on a rise and is causing obesity related diseases in children to adult life. Obesity has a physical and mental health issue impact by a person’'s weight. Preventing children to become overweight has a lot to do with their family, either by modeling healthy lifestyle choices which affects the child’s view on food.

The percentage of overweight children is growing at a fast rate. Parents must be educated of ways to prevent early childhood obesity or customs which may possibly lead to obesity in later age. Katie Vaughn and Julee Waldrop suggest the potential risks of childhood obesity in “Parent Education Key to Beating Childhood Obesity” of Childhood Obesity: Part 2. Furthermore, Nancy R. MacKenzie informs, in addition, of ways to prevent childhood obesity in “Childhood Obesity: Strategies for Prevention” of Pediatric Nursing. Sara Gable and Susan Lutz inform the fraction of obese adults had already grown immensely to a great 33% in the 1980s; whereas, ten years before the percentage was only 25% (293). Gable et al give great information furthermore in

The field of Public Health offers much evidence through various studies that obesity is an epidemic. Having experience in dealing with community projects to address obesity, the conclusion is made that enhanced policy is needed to implement effective approaches that aid in the reduction of obesity in adulthood by targeting younger populations. State and government reports regarding the health status of school-aged children is

Childhood obesity is a huge problem in our society, so here are two articles that researched one option to aid in the prevention of the epidemic: vegetarianism. The first article “Vegetarian Diets and Childhood Obesity Prevention” by Joan Sabate` and Michelle Wien from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition May 2010 vol. 91 no. 5 1525S-1529S and the second article is “Vegetarian Children: Appropriate and Inappropriate Diets” by Cathy Jacobs, MS, RD,: and Johanna T Dwyer, DSc, RD also from the The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition September 1988 vol. 48 no. 3 811-818. The two articles address vegetarianism as an option for children and why or why not it is suitable as a solution for childhood obesity and the health benefits and risks of this particular diet.

Psychological and social consequences of childhood obesity are more complex than the physical complications. School years encompass the critical developmental period of body image and self esteem. It is important to implement prevention programs into schools as individuals who are obese during childhood are more likely to have poor body image, low self esteem and confidence than those with adult onset obesity (Cole, Bellizzi, Flegal & Dietz 2000). Friffiths et al.(2006) study suggested that obese children were ranked by other children as least desirable friends, this is destructive as approval from peers is particularly important to the development of self-esteem. Exhibiting the potential value prevention programs can have on increasing self-esteem. A recent survey revealed that obese children rate their quality of life as low as those of young cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (Lüsted, 2008). The probability of being bullied is increased by 63 percent in conjunction with a negative self image social isolation occurs as obese children are more likely to have smaller or no social companions(Lee, 2009) highlighting the negative repercussion evident without programs aimed at the prevention of childhood obesity.According to the Commonwealth Department of

According to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research published in November, Researchers discovered that a prohibition on fast food advertisements during children's programming would decrease the number of obese children ages 3-11 in a fixed- population by 18% but also decrease the number of obese adolescents ages 12-18 by 14%. Thus, Restricting televised advertisements targeting children could potentially be one of the most effective obesity prevention interventions. Quebec which is one of the countries that have the lowest obesity rates is a perfect example. According to a research by Tirtha Dhar and Kathy Baylis discovered that Quebec’s 32-year prohibition on fast-food corporations to advertise to children led to an estimated

Some research have shown that obese children have lower self-esteem and confidence while others do not. Social discrimination and low self-esteem were two areas that seemed to be most affected in this study. This may have been, in part, due to physical limitations, feeling isolated or lonely, and/or teasing from peers, which is common in adolescents who are obese. Interestingly, parents answered the same questionnaires, and their ratings of their children well-being were even lower than the children self-ratings (Patrick 2005). There is some consensus in the literature that the global approach to self-esteem measurement with children who are overweight/ obese is misleading.

hildhood obesity is an enormous issue that affects the children’s current state of health, and it is predominant in the United States. Shumei Xu and Ying Xue, authors of the article “Pediatric Obesity: Causes, Symptoms, Prevention and Treatment”, states a startling fact that: “Obesity affects 34% of children in the USA, and is considered a top public health concern due to the high level of morbidity and mortality.” This is a grave issue since being morbidly obese is the cause of many negative effects, and it can inflict severe damage to a person’s internal system and occasionally be the cause of death. However, the rate of obesity can be decreased by promoting exercise and nutrition starting at a young age. Promoting these two important factors at such an early age will be effective because this will give the child a chance to combat obesity before it has even been introduced. Therefore, childhood obesity can be lowered in the United States if the school began employing nutritionists, implementing mandatory nutritional classes, and providing healthy food options starting as early as elementary school.