The Problem of Childhood Obesity - Research Paper Example

Running head: CHILDHOOD OBESITY Childhood Obesity [Writer’s name] [Institution’s name] Abstract Obesity is an increasing epidemic throughout the world. Children nowadays do not eat healthy food nor do they indulge in physical activity. Primary School children mostly in Australia are suffering from obesity. This epidemic has to be controlled by obesity reduction programs. The schools and parents both have to take notice of this issue. A lot of obesity reduction programs have helped in reducing the epidemic. Recently the Australian government has introduced a number of programs in schools, so that this problem can be tackled. However, every program in order to be successful has to have some important elements. The aims of this study are to analyze obesity reduction programs in primary schools according to elements necessary for a successful obesity reduction programs. Review the current literature to identify key factors for successful reduction of obesity in Australian Primary schools. Identify current Australian health and physical activity programs that encompass a variety of strategies that aim to reduce obesity. This paper analyzes this element in detail. Three obesity programs have been taken under consideration. They are Good for Kids, Good for Life; Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes at School; and Active After Schools. Stakeholders may utilize these findings to develop future programs. Each program has been analyzed against criteria an successful obesity reduction program, in which the elements of Family Support and School Family Partnerships, physical activity, nutrition, Staff Training and School Leadership, media and technology and media and resources. Childhood Obesity Aim of the Study The objective of the study is to: Analyze obesity reduction programs in primary schools according to elements necessary for a successful obesity reduction programs. Review the current literature to identify key factors for successful reduction of obesity in Australian Primary schools. To analyze to what extent the obesity programs do: Good for Kids, Good for Life; Active after Schools and Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School include the key elements of the success criteria set for obesity reduction programs? by means of secondary research method using literature regarding the obesity reduction programs as data . Literature Review Factors which cause obesity are low activity levels and an unhealthy diet” (O’Dea, 2007, pg 7). “Obesity in children is a very serious condition, which can lead to many other medical and psychological problems” (Walkley, 2004,). Thus obesity reduction programs should be considered (Walkley, 2004). Today, there are thought to be more than 250 million obese people worldwide (Kopelman, Caterson & Deitz 2009 ). Many countries have experienced an increase in obesity rates over the last 20 years but Australia continues to have one of the highest rates of obesity in the world (ABS, 2001). ABS (2001) statistics show that in 2001 some 30% of males and 38% of females assessed themselves as being overweight. However, according to ABS (2001) when the body mass index was calculated from the reported height and weight, 58% of males and 42% of females were classified in the overweight or obese groups. Walkley (2004) believes that incorporating both physical activity and nutrition programs into the primary school setting is the best way for young people to understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle, in turn decreasing their chances of becoming obese later in life. Research suggests that for obesity prevention programs to be successful, it is essential to incorporate the following seven elements. Elements Necessary for Obesity Reduction Program Physical activity and Nutrition An effective program consists of a good PE curriculum. The “curriculum should include the explicit and quality teaching of these skills in addition to the current games structure” (Morgan, 2008; Morgan & Hansen, 2008). Plus Physical Education should be mandatory for all high school students because it provides educational values and teach students healthy habits to reduce health risks. Schools need to offer more physical education in the children's curriculum (Fisher& Brich,1999). If schools offer more physical activity in the curriculum and give a better choice in lunch menus, then children would be more active in the activities that they do. A good obesity reduction program also includes a healthy diet plan. Fruits and vegetables introduced into a child's diet can be very beneficial towards a healthier lifestyle. Encouraging young children to eat healthy food daily is of course very important but it is also vital that the most nutritional meal of the day be introduced, this being breakfast (Story, 1999). It has been shown that children who eat a nourishing breakfast perform better throughout the day and have a more positive attitude with their school work (Katz, 2003) Family Support and School Family Partnerships An effective program involves both the school as well as the family. Children need the support and encouragement of from their families, as giving up bad eating habits for obese children is not easy (Rhee etal ,2006). As children are more then half the day in school they even need the support of the school. Families and schools are the two most critical links in providing the foundation for healthy behaviours (Barlow& Deitz ,1998). Thus, a collaboration program may help in reducing their weight as they will be supported from two of the most important instructions in their daily routine school and family. Staff Training ,School Leadership and Resources As many parents may be too busy to supervise their children's physical development, the role of school becomes instrumental and it seems obvious that the school should provide adequate training guidelines to their staff for providing physical education to the children (Barbour, Barbour & Schully, 2008). If the staff are properly trained then they will be able to effectively execute the P.E curriculum. Schools should have ample resources and an effective teaching staff so that they can execute the PE curriculum (Gortmaker etal, 1999). if the school has an effectively trained staff and good resources they will able to enhance school health curricula (including developing innovative approaches to teaching and staffing) and make use of school health services for obesity prevention efforts (Sothern & Gorden, 2003). Media, technology And Negative Body Image & Self Esteem Where television program and junk food advertisements may cause the increase of obesity, it may also be able to help in reducing it (Jeffery, 2001). Children are interested in well animated advertisements thus information should be provided to students via these advertisements (Ebbeling etal, 2003). Apart from in their favourite TV programs should also provide information regarding and healthy diets and obesity should be given. There are a lot of negative images regarding obsess children (Hill & Peters ,1998). Teachers at times tend to pass on those images to the children which then have a negative effect on their self esteem (Story, 1999). Their damaged self esteem may also result in a lost of self confidence. Thus effective programs pass on a positive body image and self esteem . Significance of the study This study will help identify what elements are necessary for an obesity prevention program to be successful. Apart from this it may be able to impart important findings and information to schools which are interested in introducing programs like Good for Kids, Good for Life; Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes at School; and Active After Schools in their system. Methodology Research questions This study will address the following question: To what extent the obesity programs do: Good for Kids, Good for Life; Active after Schools and Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School include these key elements? Data collection While considering the rationale of the study i.e. to what extent the obesity programs do: Good for Kids, Good for Life; Active after Schools and Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School include these key elements? a secondary research method was selected for this paper. In which the programs will be analyzed by means of articles and other literature available regarding their effectiveness and structure. The internet will be used so that up-to-date and relevant literature may be found. For more valid information Schools which implement these programs will be visited and hard copies of the program plan were used in the study. The data collected will be valid as proper attention will be given to authenticity of the data. Thus, the entire data will be literature based and shall be based on qualitative information and not quantitative data. Qualitative data was used in this research as the study is supposed to analyze the relevant elements and efficiency of the above mentioned obesity reduction program. Rationale for Approach This study may prove to be of importance for future obesity reduction programs. As it pinpoints the important elements of a successful and efficient obesity reduction program. The programs used in this study were ones which were the most recent and practical. Apart from this all three obesity reduction programs are widely used in the Australian school population. Based on the key elements of success identified, it was important to choose programs that were not outdated, impractical or too narrow in their focus and availability. Hence, the three programs chosen for this report include Good for Kids, Good for Life; Active After Schools and Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School. Data analysis The data analysis of this study was done by first reviewing the literature of which element make an obesity reduction program effective. Every element was analyzed in depth keeping the educational system in mind. A new set of question arise from those elements. What is the program and what is the structure of the program Information for this was collected by literature on the above mentioned programs (i.e. good for Kids, Good for Life; Active after Schools and Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School). These questions will help in analyzing the efficacy of the three above mentioned obesity reduction programmes. By analyzing the structure of the programs the elements mentioned in the literature review can be easily identified. Each programme was analyzed against the criteria of elements given in the literature review. As those elements help in finding out if the obesity reduction programme is an effective one or not. All three programs criteria was judged and compared by means of the before mentioned elements. Apart from the analysis will also give recommendation for further new programs as well as limitation to the study. The limitations of the study will help in further research of this topic. Findings Over View of the Programs for Analysis of Findings Good for Kids, Good for Life 'Good for Kids. Good for Life.' is an obesity reduction program for children which is implemented and designed by the NSW government (Good for kids, 2009). Its gives ample information to both the parents and children. Apart, from this it even encourages physical activity and healthy eating habits. What is the structure of the program? The entire structure of the program highlights three of the before mentioned elements. In phase 1 they provide the school resources regarding how they can make changes in their system to reduce obesity, by encouraging a healthy life style (Good for kids, 2009). In the second part, it provides parents and children with information on cds and other resources regarding healthy eating. Good for kids will focus on five key areas: This program is designed to increase the activeness of children by making them take part in sports and fun activities which involve movement skills The program aims to reduce the amount of time students spend in activities which do not involve any movement. such as playing video games or watching TV The program will encourage children to drink a lot of water. It will discourage children from drinking sweetened drinks, even juices. The program aims to encourage children to eat fruits and vegetables so that they may reduce the intake of junk food items like chips and biscuits The program basically aims to lessen the intake of fatty sugary and salty food products , thus helping in the reduction of obesity There are three main components to the program; Get Skilled – this is based on developing the 12 Fundamental Movement Skills Get Active - this component is based on encouraging Small Screen Recreation Go! - This component is based on encouraging physical activity during school and class room hours Elements present in program Providing Training and resources regarding the program to the teachers Promoting Physical activity and healthy eating habits in schools Providing support and information to both students and parents. Healthy eating Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School What is the program? Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School is a government endorsed program. It aims at giving children a taste of healthy food. It believes that the best place to encourage healthy eating habits is the school canteen (Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School 2010). Apart from this it provides resources to Parents, children, school staff. The resources provided are PowerPoint presentation, presentation notes, resource notes, canteen planner model, and the menu planning guide. Structure of the Program The objective of the program is to reduce the intake of fatty and sugary foods in school canteen. They only allow such food two days in term. Apart form this they help children, parents and canteen staff to find out which food is healthy for them. The program even considers the size of the servings being given (Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School 2010). The food served in the canteen is divided into three categories. All three categories are divided according t their nutrition level. ‘Fill the Menu’ Green, ‘Select Carefully’ Amber Sell Occasionally’ Red. Green or ‘Fill menu consists of things which are present in the basic five foods groups and have extremely less saturated fat, sugar or salt, moreover they even have a lot of important nutrients. These foods have to be highlighted in the canteen. Foods include in this menu usually include fruit, vegetables, wholegrain or high fiber bread and cereals, reduced fat milk, cheese and yoghurt, lean meat, fish and poultry, eggs and nuts. Amber or ‘Select Carefully’ menus usually include eatables which have a medium level of saturated fat, sugar or salt and also provide a medium level of energy. This kind of food is not apart of the red category as it does not provide a lot of nutrients. Such a menu should also include green vegetables so that the nutrient intake can be balanced. Serving sizes in this menu is usually minimum sized, and not large. Moderate. A lot of commercial food products are served in the menu, but they are modified in such manner that they fulfill all the requirements of the nutrient level intake. For instance low fat pies, less cheesy lasagna, low fat pasta dishes, chicken based products, noodles, vegetable and less cheesy or goat cheese pizzas. The ‘Sell Occasionally’ menu include food which do not have enough nutrients and consist of a lot of saturated fat, sugar or salt , thus it may result in an high cariole intake . This program banned such foods from being sold in canteens of vending machines. This was implemented in 2005. The program only permitted only one or two of the items can be sold in the canteens once a term. Examples of such items are bakery products or cold drinks, chips, French fires and biscuits. The above mentioned menus are a kind of watch over the students as they will only be able to purchase what is on the menu. And as mentioned above the menu will only consist of healthy food items. It menu also help to reduce student’s habit of eating high fatty and sugary foods. It will help them to develop their taste of vegetables, fruits and healthy foods in such a manner that they will not crave high calorie foods. Elements present Providing Training and resources regarding the program to the teachers Supporting children and family Media used Healthy eating Active after Schools What is the program? This program is based on physical activity. The government needs funding as it is free. It wants a huge number of students to take part (NSW Government Plan 2009). If a lot of students take part then the government can prove to schools and parents that their program is highly effective and in turn also receive a lot of funds. Structure of the Program This program encourages post and physical activity. They believe this program should be coupled with other strategies to prevent obesity such as parents leading by example and exercising regularly with them in the form of sport, games or other physical pursuits. it even improves the self esteem of children (NSW Government Plan 2009). The increase of physical activity will help in reducing the couch potato activates of the students. They will become more active and thus the obesity problem in primary school children can be reduced due to this program. The fact that the program has a trained staff makes it even more effective. Their staff help the children to learn new physical activates which makes the learning process even more fun. This staff usually even helps children in selecting the proper activity for them selves according to their age and weight. Elements present. Supporting children and family Physical activity Improving self esteem Trained staff The elements which can be note in the three programs have been highlighted. The elements have been developed from the literature review which outlined the criteria required to set the foundations for an obesity prevention program to be successful. As noted above all the above programs were analyzed on set criteria, mentioned in the literature review. The entire finding of the study is based on findings set from the criteria. The findings thus can be considered to be accurate and valid. After analyzing the elements present in the programs it can be said that Good for Kids, Good for Life, it meets most of the criteria which is mentioned in the literature review. The program can be said to fulfill practically all the elements. Elements not included in this program are school-family partnerships, specialized teachers and body image and self esteem education. The Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School program was second in fulfilling the criteria important for an effective obesity reduction program. The elements it consisted of are nutrition education, family orientated, staff training provided, supported by internet and appropriate resources. The Active after Schools program consisted of the least success criteria as compared to both programs, Good for Kids, Good for Life and The Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School. Active after Schools fulfilled less then half of the required criteria, namely appropriate levels of physical activity, Supporting children and family improving self esteem and trained staff. None of the programs had documented the use of education on school-family partnerships. Only Active after Schools seemed to fulfill the criteria of body image and self esteem. The above mentioned obesity reduction programs were family oriented, provided staff training and appropriate resources. However they were all dependent on the school and it’s administration. However all three of the obesity reduction programs seemed to have an effective set of objectives. Even if they did not fulfill the criteria, they still seemed an effective option for obesity reduction in primary school children. Discussion Good for Kids, Good for Life is a complete and versatile obesity reduction program. It fulfilled almost all of the criteria required for an effective and well planed obesity prevention program. It also consists of how to teach and spread awareness regarding the information of healthy eating and physical activity not just to the school’s students, but also to their parents and people in their community. It is not a complicated program, and thus even teachers do not have to spend a lot of time in preparing for the program. The program helps to provide the students with a lot of opportunities to understand and receive the message regarding obesity and healthy eating. However the program still has room for improvement and its needs to promote school-family partnerships to work together with families to fulfill the requirements of students in school as well as at home. Specially trained teachers should be selected for the implementation of the program so that quality teaching can be fully ensured. Finally, awareness regarding body image and self-esteem may a positive element if it is could included in the program so that students may be able to achieve a proper perception regarding their nutrition and physical activity. The Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School program fulfilled the same criteria as the Active after Schools. Once more, it should be pointed out that this program has a particular schedule and does not claim to be as a complete program when compared to Good for Kids, Good for Life us. The program encourages healthy eating. It helps students in selecting food which may reduce their obesity. A problem with this program is that the canteens are currently selling highly processed food, however this is considered as something acceptable as they say that it sis low fat. For case, a student might then not fully understand the message which the program is sending out i.e. fresh fruit and vegetables are better then any kind of fatty food even it is low fat. More improvements have to be made in this program; however the plus point is that it finds ways in which it makes sure that canteens are following their guidelines regarding food. The Active after Schools program the same identified criteria as the above mentioned program. However it too needs improvement in nutrition education, increasing fruit and vegetable intake, adopting school/family partnerships, internet support, have authentic assessment opportunities and providing body image and self esteem education to its participants. Even though it fulfills more then half the criteria, it has to be pinpointed that this program has a specific agenda and as such, does not aim to fulfill all criteria. The recommendations for future programs may be could be making use of the success criteria which are mentioned on the literature review to develop more successful and effective obesity reduction programs. By using the criteria for developing the effective obesity program and combining it with a proper and effective teaching model may result in a program which will fulfill all the required criteria. It could even lead to a development of a prefect obesity reduction program (Amosa, Ladwig, Griffiths, & Gore, 2007). The study promotes the need of quality teaching models so that the program may be more effective. Apart from this is also promotes the requirements of obesity reduction programs and schools to make use of a combination of approaches in the classroom to provide the students with the best opportunity of living an healthy and active life. After considering the positive results and analyzing the given criteria, it may be said that good for Kids, Good for Life is the most successful obesity reduction program and should be implemented in every school. The findings associate the information on obesity reduction programs by using the current literature regarding the need for obesity reduction in primary school aged children by means physical activity and nutrition education programs. The findings is an important contribution to this topic regarding childhood obesity and reduction programs as it has set a criteria by which the programs may be judged and ranked. This study is not a copied version as takes under consideration the positive elements from literature which is in turn considered as elements of the criteria. The study gives less significance to the existing knowledge, and more insignificance to the analysis of current literature to critically analyze the present obesity programs which the Australian schools consider as effective. Future research can be carried out by making use of the success criteria and measuring against programs that have had a positive impact to reduce obesity. Future research can be carried out by assessing new programs or programs which are still in the development phases using the success criteria. Further research can also be based on analyzing how effectively the teacher imparts information regarding the program to the students in the class room. As if a program fulfills all the criteria and if the teacher cannot successfully implement it in the class room then it is bound to be unsuccessful A very important limitation of the study is that a program based on obesity reduction can only be considered as successful after it is implemented, and the whole research is just literature based. The fact that he study has analyzed program’s effect on obesity reduction may help find out the validity of the criteria for success which is mentioned in the literature review. An extension study could be carried out by analyzing the results of the program after it is implemented against the success criteria which are mentioned in the literature review. The sources selected for this research could also prove to be biased. Even though they were selected form valid sources the information on a lot of sources where the research is literature based usually face such problems. The validation of the sources can usually only be effectively proved if quantitative data is used. This could result in the entire study being wrong and invalid. Every obesity program has it’s won special way of reducing obesity, however the criteria used in the study did not consider any of the programs as completely having all the elements. However the criteria may be faulty here, as not necessary that a program like Healthy School Canteen: Fresh Tastes @ School program did not rank as the most successful obesity reduction program, but if present literature regarding obesity is studied then healthy eating is the best way to beat obesity so this can also be considered as a limitation to the criteria and the study. Apart from this the study should include raw data of every student on how much weight was lost in which program. This could help in fining out the efficiency of the program. If the researcher has a solid average of what the outcome of the program was then it would be easy to regard it as being effective. To conclude it may be said that the above study has given a clear understanding of what an effective obesity reduction program is. The fact that it has used three of the most well known programs in the Australian school system makes the study even more valid. The criteria set for analyzing the programs helps further in understanding the efficacy of the above mentioned programs. The study has it’s limitations. However, an improved version of this study may be an effective contribution to the obesity reduction research. It may also help in developing new and more improved obesity reduction programs, which may yield more effective results. The recommendations given above can be considered for this purpose. Thus, it can be said that as per the findings the best obesity reduction program is good of kids, good for life as it fulfills most of the criteria. 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