NURS13128 : Nursing - Childhood Obesity - Assessment Answer

Nursing Assignment

Case Scenario

You are a new graduate registered nurse working in child and family community health and have identified that childhood obesity appears to be a key health problem in your community.

You are required to conduct a ten-minute oral presentation that addresses childhood obesity in your community. It is expected that you develop a powerpoint presentation that you will utilise whilst delivering your oral presentation. Remember to consider the audience that you are delivering your presentation to when developing the powerpoint.

Present your oral presentation to a minimum of five people of your choosing (this may be family, friends and/or peers). These five people will be required to each complete an evaluation of your presentation (Use the evaluation tool located on moodle in the assignment section: Essential assessment two information; then upload the completed evaluations as one document with your self-reflection).

Assignment Task

1 . Give a brief overview of how childhood obesity influences children’s health both inchildhood and in their future health.

2. Determine how you will establish that childhood obesity is a key health problem in your community by using demographic data (you can choose to either source demographic data from your own community or use national demographic data). Ensure that you review age groups as well as ethnic and cultural groups to establish an appropriate target group.

3. Compare this demographic data to other developed country’s childhood over weight and obesity statistics.

4. Choose a demographic target group based on the demographic data that you have gathered (for example infants, toddlers, young child, school age or adolescence). Discuss why childhood obesity is so prevalent in this target group, providing evidence to justify your view point.

5. Establish a health promotion plan that provides three family-centred and ethically and culturally appropriate interventions and three evidence-based rationales to prevent and reduce childhood obesity in this target group. Use evidence-based literature to justify why you have chosen to focus on these three interventions. Briefly discuss whether these interventions can be applied at a local, national or international level using current and relevant literature to justify your viewpoint.

Introduction

Obesity is a global health issue among the children and the adults. Obesity refers to situation in which the weight range of individual is higher that the ideal weight which is considered to be healthy. Like in the case of adult obesity childhood obesity is increasingly being a health and the general wellbeing concern of children(Hughes, 2011). Obesity classification in children depend on the body consumption of the child and varies with the sex and age of the child(Asterfield, 2011).

Childhood obesity has serious health consequences both in the immediate and later life(Holly, 2015). Some of the diseases associated with obesity include: cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, metabolic syndrome, asthma, sleep disorders, orthopedic complications and in some cases it may result to mental disorders. In the cases of the children the effect is more serious because they suffer from some of the chronic illness for longer duration. This is because they suffer from illness that were initially being associated with adults only(Raman, 2015). For instant type 2 diabetes was initially being associated with ages of around fifty, but with obesity the children can develop it as early as 12 years hence forced to cope with it for longer time duration(Swinburn BA, 2012). Although some of the diseases such as heart diseases may not be diagnosed early in the obese children ,they commence to take their physical toll sooner hence resulting to more complications and nun healthy life than in the case of normal weight children. Study done by Ghosh, (2014) showed thatdue to the possibility of increased prevalence of sever childhood obesity, children may be forced to live less healthy and shorter lives than their parents. This hence shows that childhood obesity is serious health concern and should be prevented as much as possible(Silva-Sanigorski, 2011). Generally obese children are more likely to be sick hence miss school due to the sickness, may experience health-related restrictions and be in need of more medical attention than the normal with children(Ghosh, 2014). There is high possibility that overweigh children will end up being obese adults andhence have higher risk of morbidity, disability and premature mortality in the adulthood(Olds, 2011). Obesity levels are continually going up both in Australia and global. The obesity demographics are very essential for the management of this issue.

Obesity demographics.

According to the last survey done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Health Survey indicated that approximately 63% of the population aged 18 and above are obese. According to the statistics only 36% of Australians adults have the normal body weight(Australian Government Preventative Health Taskforce, 2012). The obesity weight is indicated by the body mass index which varies in distribution with age, sex and different environmental factors. Generally in the males the BMI peaks at higher levels hence indicating that obesity is more common in the males (70%) than in the females(National Health and Medical Research Council , 2013). In Australia the obesity levels differs with geographical location especially in the adults. The highest levels are recorded in the inner regional and outer regional remote areas. Approximately 75% of men in the inner regions and in the remote areas are overweight(National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013). On the other hand about 68% of those in the major cities are obese. In the case of women about 69% of those in the remote arrears are obese while about 53% of those in the major cities are obese(Cleland, 2011). In the case of the women the overweight levels also differs with the socioeconomic groups. Approximately 63% of women in lower socioeconomic standards while are obese as compared to the 47% of those from highest socioeconomic standards(National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013). Unlike in women, in the males the rates don’t vary with the socioeconomic standards(Cleland, 2011).

According to the 2011-2012 survey done by the Australian Health survey about 25% of the children aged below 18 years are overweight(National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013). Unlike in the case of adults the proportion doesn’t differ significantly between the boys and girls. The rates are almost similar across age groups. They range between 23% for kids aged between 2-4 to 27% for adolescents aged between 12-15 years. In the case of boys the the highest level of 9% is recoded for ages between 5-7 while in the case of girls the highest level of 8% is recorded at the age of 5-7 and 16-17 years(National Health Perfomance Authority, 2013).

Comparison of the demography with other countries

The latest statistics showed that more than 53% of people above 15 year old in the Organizational for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries are obese(National Health PerfomanceAuthority, 2013). M According to the comparisons by the Australian obesity rates are the fourth highest with 28%. United States had 37%, Mexico 30% and Hungary 29%. Among the OECD member countries the average percentage is about 23% with Japan and Korea recording the lowest of about 4%.

Among the OECD countries the numbers of 15 year old children who are obese has continued to increases since 2000. The statistics have almost stable trends for girls in the past decade in the United States and France while that of boys had a slight increase in the in France and slight reduction in England and Mexico from 18.1-17.2% for boys while that of girls was from 14-1-13.6% between 2006 and 2012 (National Health PerfomanceAuthority, 2013). Despite the small changes in the obese levels globally the issues cannot be overlooked. In Greece more than 30% boys are overweight .The same applies to Italy, Slovenia and USA. The same figure also applies in the case of girls except for Slovenia.

Causes of obesity among the adolescents

Generally it occurs as result of inequality intake and spending of the energy(Nawab, 2014). Some of the factors are as discussed below.

Poor eating habits is the most common reason behind obesity in the adolescents and teenagers. More children and teenagers have become vulnerable to bad eating habits and hence consume fast foods instead of healthy diets. Most of the first foods are composed of carbohydrates and high levels of fats which results to the overweight(Hughes, 2011). Obesity may also occur in the teenagers due to lack of physical exercise and other activities. Currently most adolescents spend their time watching movies and playing video games instead of exercising and having enough sleep hence resulting to the gaining of the weight. Lack of proper sleep can also result to gaining of weight in the teenagers. Lack of sleep leads to development of ghrelin in their bodies(Shomaker LB, 2012). Apart from this, lack of sleep is also associated with reduced levels of leptin (Carter, 2011). This makes him eat more and more hence resulting to obesity. Childhood obesity may be inherited by the children from their parents as result of genetic factors. Child being brought up in a family that is characterized by more obese people is most likely to be obese even at the teenage age. Past literature(Archbold, 2012)has shown that socio-economic environment of the child can impact on the body weight of the kid. According to studies done children from middle class families are more likely to become obese than those from poor families(Ogden, 2012). Finally childhood obesity may arise due to some physical conditions such as Cushing’s syndrome, growth hormone deficiency and genetic syndrome. Children born while overweight may also be obese in their entire lives(Mosli, 2016).

Interventions

The action plan adopted should aim at contributing and producing awareness among the teenagers on the risk factors associated with obesity. The action should work against factors that promote weight gain and instead promote those that contribute to weight loss(Archbold, 2012). The interventions should range from the family set up to the national levels.

Family set up from which the child come from is very critical in the control of the body weight. Both parents and the siblings are the people closest to the child hence can positively impact on their lifestyle(Archbold, 2012). Encouragement of proper eating habits at the family level is very critical in the management body weight(Ghosh, 2014). The kids should be encouraged to eat healthy and avoid taking in of too much junks and instead to eat more fruits and vegetables(Power, 2011). Promotion of physical activities can also help reduction of the body weight. Physical activity can be promoted via small strategies such as parking cars ways from stores to encourage the kids to use and they can be encouraged to use stairs instead of elevators(Hughes, 2011). The family set up should allow the children to have enough sleep since lack of sleep may promote the gain of body weight(World Health Organization), 2013).

School based intervention s can also effectively succeed in the control of the body weight. A study done by(Nawab, 2014)on diet intervention showed significant improvement in the BMI and obesity prevalence. The intervention targeted weight gain preventing measures through both education and making structural changes that may encourage active physical activity(Jiang, 2013). Reconditions made by (World Health Organization, 2014)proved that policy support from different governance levels are very important in prevention of obesity especially at the national level. This can be achieved by creation of environment which is supportive together with regional polices that advocate for obesity prevention(Authority, 2013). Equity and inclusivity should be assured at all times especially ate the regional and national levels. Study done by (Mytton, 2011)proved that kids from higher socio economic standards benefits from the set interventions more than those from disadvantaged backgrounds. To prevent the inequalities the policy makers and practioners should ensure that the set interventions do not worsen the inequalities. The strategies adopted should ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups.

Self-reflection

Below is my reflection of the ten minute presentation that I made on the childhood obesity in my community .Like the entire Australia and globally obesity has increasingly become an health concern issue. It cut across all the age groups ranging from children to the adults. However I felt it is important to look at it at the children level because prevention at this levels can reduce the morbidities associated with it in the future. I effectively managed to convince my audience on the importance of preventing childhood obesity first telling them the associated health risks. The provision of the statistics enabled then to see the need of the intervention measures since obesity levels were on the rise globally.

However if I were to do the presentation again I would improve on the demographic information. The information used was based on the census that were done in the year 2012. This hence did not reflect the changes that might have occurred in the current years. I didn’t mention to the audience on whether the numbers were rising or dropping from the last one year. In the presentation I also did not include much on the evidenced based practices that can effectively be used to prevent obsess cases in the children. Although I mentioned the importance of family in the intervention it was not supported by statistics. If I were to redo the presentation I would include past studies that have previously been done on the role of family and maybe show the exact contribution of different family interventions. I would also perform more literature search on the evidence based interventions and if it is possible to integrate different interventions.

I think I successfully covered the assessment task except for the evidence based interventions. The other areas were well covered because I included explicitly explain the illness associated in obesity and the risk factors involved. I then gave general demography of the obesity levels in Australia and later focused on the children especially the adolescents. I was also able to effectively comparer the Australian data with other developed countries especially the countries that are OECD members. After explaining to the audience the obesity demographics I later led them through the possible causes of obesity especially in the case of teenagers. I successfully explain how each factor might result to obesity. After the obesity causes I gave them my intervention plan. In the plan I emphasized the importance of the family and the entire community in the prevention of the obesity cases in the children .I highlights the three main intervention theta can be taken at the family level. I also included evidence based intervention. However the later was not well covered due lack of past literature on the same.