The United States of America is still grappling with the challenges posed by obesity. The latter is a gross health challenge not just in the US. Both the developed and developing nations have secured some significant amounts of finance to cater to the healthcare budget on obesity. It is crucial to understand that the onsets of most chronic infections such as diabetes 2, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases are usually attributed to obesity (Chang & Nayga, 2010).
The entire health challenges of obesity usually begin with being overweight during childhood. In most cases, parents, guardians, and even teachers do not work collaboratively to address the aspect of being overweight during childhood. As a result, most overweight children end up being obese. Several children may hardly abandon unhealthy eating habits if they are not corrected at the right time. They continue with the same lifestyle in adulthood.
This explains why over 90% of obese cases among adults are believed to have been acquired during the childhood stage. Various stakeholders must forge a common front in the fight against obesity. For instance, healthcare professionals, education officials, teachers, children, parents, and guardians are supposed to work as a team in confronting various healthcare challenges of obesity (Gollust, Niederdeppe & Barry, 2013).
One of the methods that can be used to lower childhood obesity is the adoption of a collaborative education plan. Such a program should aim at introducing a comprehensive lifestyle change plan for all children because they are all deemed to be vulnerable. Healthcare professionals such as nurses are equally supposed to be well equipped with healthy lifestyle guideline notes for sharing with parents and guardians when they visit hospital settings.
The remaining section of this brief essay explores the severity of childhood obesity. A solution that can be practically adopted and executed has also been expounded in the essay.
As already pointed out, most cases of obesity begin at the elementary level or even earlier. Empirical research studies on obesity reveal that overweight children who are in the third grade are highly likely to develop to full obesity at the eighth grade. Due to the severe nature of obesity, its management should not be ignored at all. If parents and guardians can initiate preventive measures against overweight at the third grade, then the state of obesity prevalent at the eighth grade can be avoided altogether.
In addition, parents, guardians, and healthcare professionals should appreciate the fact that children only adhere to instructions given to them. For example, children can be properly guided to avoid craving unhealthy food substances. In other words, it is a lot easy for parents and caregivers to guide children on the best eating habits while they are still young (Chang & Nayga, 2010).
Besides, the active involvement of third-grade children in physical exercises should be encouraged and taught as early as possible. This can be especially beneficial for children who are unable to avoid certain unhealthy foodstuffs. Unless obesity is prevented or managed from the tender age, it will continue to be a major risk factor for some of the most deadly chronic health complications mentioned above. Unfortunately, the rate of obesity among children does not seem to go down irrespective of preventive efforts that have already been put in place. As it stands now, obesity is at the epidemic level across several nations in the developed world.
The magnitude of problems presented by obesity calls for a concerted effort in its management. Our governments will continue to spend hefty sums of money to control or treat several risks of obesity if the proposed solutions are not put into action. It is not enough to develop blueprints on obesity prevention and management without translating the same into action. Individual households with obese children or adults also incur a lot of financial losses when it comes to healthcare costs.
Even though the general public understands the basic obesity management and prevention procedures, the information is yet to assist in offering solutions to the challenges of obesity. There is no single parent or guardian in the modern age who does not know that physical exercise and a healthy diet assist in minimizing incidences of obesity.
The level of awareness is quite high. Nonetheless, why is there a mismatch between the actual information available on the prevention of obesity and societal willingness to implement the same methods? It is against this backdrop that a thorough implementation plan which involves all the stakeholders is required. The execution phases of both the preventive and management methods of obesity ought to be structured with measurable outcomes.
The stakeholders mentioned above should work as a unit. Apart from a healthy diet and physical exercise, stakeholders may also be well endowed with other informal skills of preventing and managing incidences of obesity. Various health outcomes that are equally gainful can still be realized when stakeholders approach the problem from a common front.
A typical and functional implementation plan that can be used in this case is the Health Exercise Nutrition for the Young (HENRY) perspective. This plan is keen to ensure that healthcare professionals work closely with elementary children to manage or prevent obesity. In the HENRY plan, healthcare practitioners are trained on how to guide the vulnerable groups on obesity prevention.
In any case, healthcare experts are supposed to be conversant with obesity prevention procedures so that they can be in a position to transfer the same knowledge and skills to preschoolers, parents, and guardians. Obesity should be diagnosed by nurses and doctors as early as possible to give adequate periods for its management.
Poor or under-diagnosis of obesity is the main weakness in the prevention and management programs that have been used for a long time. Poor diagnosis has also led to ignorance of obesity as a major health problem. Through the HENRY approach, all the stakeholders including preschoolers are brought to the same level of appreciating the seriousness of the problem at hand (Chang & Nayga, 2010).
A shrewd evaluation of parents with children who suffer from obesity is necessary to ascertain the progress of both the preventive and management measures in place. Some of the issues considered in the assessment process are the dietary intake and daily routines of children. Children should also be tested on how much they know about obesity, its effects, and preventive as well as management measures. When such procedures are keenly followed, children, parents, and caregivers will be able to visualize the seriousness of the problem and thereafter begin to take proactive steps in addressing the challenge.
Nutritionists can also join the program in educating parents, caregivers, and children on the best type of diets to take. Diverse opinions from other stakeholders may be part and parcel of the structured program in the prevention and management of obesity. The same stakeholders can also provide important insights into the development of a teaching curriculum in schools.
Physical education teachers, school nurses, and directors are key personalities who should be regularly engaged in the prevention of obesity. An empirical study can be carried out to determine the best modalities for preventing obesity. A similar research study was carried out in 2010. During the qualitative research, open-ended questions were asked to the respondents. They were supposed to give their honest feedback on the best methods of preventing obesity.
When stakeholders actively take part in the implementation plan, every participating individual can offer personal opinions most effectively. In the case of parents, guardians, and caregivers, the best help can be advanced to children since they understand preschoolers more than other stakeholders (Frieden, Dietz & Collins, 2010). They are also at a vantage position to intrinsically comprehend various physical activities that their children like. Desired healthy habits can be taught in schools through a well-crafted program.
Teachers are expected to play the latter role while in school. For example, school teachers may begin by altering meals offered to children according to the health requirements that prevent obesity. Additional time can also be allocated to physical education especially after the normal learning program. The relevance of a healthy diet and physical exercise should be taught to children as clearly as possible.
To initiate the implementation process, a total of 200 hundred stakeholders will be randomly selected from the immediate community. Out of the sample size, 100 of the stakeholders will be made up of respondents with obese children. The participants will be required to fill out open-ended questions from questionnaires. The questions will revolve around the causes, prevention, and management of obesity. They will also give feedback on the best implementation plan in the prevention of obesity.
After holding meetings with various focus groups, we will come up with an effective implementation plan. Meetings with managers will only be held after all the pertinent data have been collected. The writer will also employ effective communication and interviewing skills in the entire process of engaging stakeholders. All the responses and identification of participants will be kept as confidential as possible. Through the questionnaire, the researcher will be able to comprehend the diverse opinions of all the stakeholders taking part in the survey (Gollust, Niederdeppe & Barry, 2013).
To sum up, it is vital to reiterate that childhood obesity is a growing health challenge that should be given extra attention. There are several chronic health complications occasioned by obesity. Unless the condition is managed at the childhood level, it can easily transcend to adulthood. Therefore, different stakeholders such as teachers, healthcare practitioners, nutritionists, school directors, parents, caregivers, and guardians can be involved in the prevention and management of obesity among preschoolers.
An implementation plan discussed above seeks to create a collaborative environment whereby all the stakeholders can offer honest and independent opinions. It is indeed possible to significantly lower the incidences of obesity in children when proper diet and regular physical exercises are taken into consideration.
References
Chang, H., & Nayga, R. M. (2010). Childhood obesity and unhappiness: The influence of soft drinks and fast food consumption. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11(3), 261-275.
Frieden, T. R., Dietz, W., & Collins, J. (2010). Reducing childhood obesity through policy change: Acting now to prevent obesity. Health Affairs, 29(3), 357-63.
Gollust, S. E., Niederdeppe, J. & Barry, C. (2013). Framing the consequences of childhood obesity to increase public support for obesity prevention policy. American Journal of Public Health, 103(11), E96-E102.