Health Promotional Program for Prevention of Obesity - Term Paper Example

Health promotional program for prevention of obesity Name Professor Course Date Health promotional program for prevention of obesity Introduction Obesity is one of the greatest public health challenges that are confronting Australia today. With over 60% of its adult being overweight, Australia is one of the most overweight developed nations (Booth 2006) The term obesity and overweight are used to refer to weight ranges greater than what is considered healthy weight for a given height. An overweight person has extra body weight from fats, water, muscle and bone. An obese person has high amount of extra body fats. Body index mass (BMI) is the standard used to measure body weight in adults. An adult with BMI measure greater than 25 is considered overweight while those with BMI of over 30 are obese (Dunstan, 2007). Overweight and obesity are key risk indicators for preventable morbidity and mortality due to many associated diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, and hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The cost of obesity and its associated disease have been estimated as $ 84 billion per year of which 63% are direct cost within the healthcare system. In additional it has been estimated that more than $500 million is spent on weight control programs. According to Booth Chang, (2007), health and psychological cost of overweight and obesity are very high. As mentioned earlier, obese people are at a greater risk of acquiring fatal disease such as diabetes, in addition to other social problem such as discrimination. For this reason, prevention of obesity is necessary. In Australia, the number of obese people has been raising steadily. This is dangerous and should be controlled. Over time, extensive studies into the aetiologies of the obesity and numerous exercise or dietary treatment for overweight persons have been carried. However, as Danson, (2005), observed, there are very few strategies set in place for the prevention of obesity. According to King and Bauman, (2005), many of the cases of the obesity in human develop from lifestyle or environmental factor. Therefore, this is where the scope for prevention lies The objective of this people is to develop an obesity prevention program for middle-aged adults in Australia. The proposed model emphasizes on changing and the macro environment to make it easier for people for people to undertake physical activity and make healthier food choice. The goal of the plan is to prevent further weight gains among middle-aged adults, and reduce the proportion of middle-aged adults that are obese. The program will combine approaches with physical activities and diet, through public health actions occurring at the level of macro environment. The programs target middle-aged Australian adult aged 25- 40 years. The implementation of the program will relay on people in positions of influence within the community to act as advocates to encourage adoption of the plan. This includes health officers, fitness and weight loss leaders, local leaders, engineers and designers, and educators. In addition, the programme will require cooperation of restaurants, retailers, manufactures of food products. Monitoring and evaluation of the program will be critical in determining its success. Rather than introducing new data collection, the programs will utilise the existing data collection activities Obesity in Australia The prevalence of obesity and overweight in Australia has been steadily increasing in the past two decades (Joseph, 2008) Data from recent study indicate that more than half of Australian are overweight, and over a third of this are obese. In fact, according to a study carried among Australians aged 25 years and over, almost 60% of the participants were overweight. Male (67%) were more likely than female (53%) to be overweight or obese. The prevalence of being overweight but not obese was 39% - 32% for female and 48% for male. The prevalence of being obese was 20%- 21% for female and 19% for male. The number of obese adults in Australia has increased from 4.6 million in 1989, to 5.4 in 1995 to 7.4 million in 2004-2005. Moreover, over the past 20 years, the average weight of Australian adults has increased by 1kg per year (Lopez, 2009) According to Lobstein T, (2006), the burden of disease data high body mass is responsible for 7.5 % of the total burden of disease. High body mass cause about 55% of the burden associated with diabetes and 20% of the cordial vascular disease. Obesity is also associated with other complications including back complication, reproductive and mental problem as well as sleep apnoea. With regard to Australia, the most recent data show that obesity cause 23% of type 2 diabetes, 24% of osteoarthritis, 20% of collateral, uterine, and kidney cancer and 21% cardiovascular disease. Health issue resulting from obesity impose a huge economic burden to individuals, families and the society (Stanley and Lopez, 2007). In Australia alone, it has been estimated that the overall cost of obesity is $ 58 billion per year. The net cost of well being lost is estimated to be 49.9 billion. Obesity also reduces productivity in the workplace. It is associated to four million days lost from Australian workplace. The above facts makes worthwhile to invest in an obesity and overweight prevention program. Program description Goals one: To ensure community level leadership and coordination of all obesity prevention efforts geared toward creating an active living and healthy eating environment. Objectives one: to convene all the community health partner to collaborate on common goal and share resource and best practices that support healthy eating and active living environment, by May 2015,. Strategies: 1. To coordinate all obesity prevention efforts of all community- based organizations 2. To bring all relevant parties together through meeting and conferences, to discuss the obesity prevention goal. 3. To disseminate the best practices to mange obesity, to all relevant parties. Goal two: To expand public education campaigns- at community level -that promote active living and healthy eating objective Objective one: By May 2015, community health centre will provide funds to enable community level education and campaigns on healthy eating and active living, Strategies 1. To prioritize active living and health eating messages that community health -promotion program will disseminate through appropriate channels. 2. To develop culturally and linguistic message that will be intended for middle aged Australian adults. Goal three: To work with the local communities to improve access to health eating and physical activities in families and community Objective one: By may 2015, The local health authorities will work with local community and other local government agencies to improve active living environment and health eating . Strategies 1. To work with local health department and communities to increase access to joint use of health facilities at the same time decrease access of sugar sweetened beverages. 2. To evaluate the intervention measures and share best practices. 3. To develop new training kit or update the existing one and implement training. 4. To advocate for changes in federal policies, to promote program participation, healthier foods and greater opportunities to enhance physical activity. 5. To coordinate community based organization to ensure leverage of resource and promote learning synergy and collaboration among programs Objectives two: By may 2015, community will increase adoption of model of land use, planning and transportation policy that promote obesity. Strategies 1. To improve planning policies in order to increase access to healthy food and public recreation facilities. This can be achieved through provision of resource for best practices through training or though website; raising awareness among engineers and planers, law enforcement officers, and designers on the relationship between designs and community health. 2. Research and identifying the best practices, design that will increase healthy eating and physical activity Objective three: By May 2015, the community will increasingly implement the nutritional strategies that promote the prevention of obesity. Strategies 1. Educate local health officials on the health and economic benefit of policies that promote healthy eating and active living. 2. Promote the development of local sustainable food system to support food security for low-income communities. Through collaborating with private investors to sustainable local agriculture educate residents, community stakeholders on the benefits of local markets in providing access to fresh produce and mitigate the impact of long transport. 3. Establish nutritional standard for food and beverages available in public facilities to reduce access to calories dense food and beverages Objective four: By May 2015, positive obesity prevention practice will be the norm among Australian families and community. Strategies 1. Advocate for the development of community environment that promote healthy eating through collaborating with local stakeholders that value family advocacy and through engaging local leaders to ensure the concerns of families are put into consideration. 2. Make healthy eating and physical activity lifestyle behaviours the foundation of each family daily living. Objective five: By May 2015, food and beverages will adopt policies and practices that limit access to high calories food and promote health food choice. Strategies 1. Limit advertisement by manufactures and retailers of unhealthy food and beverages. 2. Ensure that consumer have aces to information that will guide them to choose healthy food. 3. Limit sugar, fats, and sodium in meals instead and add fruits and vegetables to meal in restaurants. 4. Ensure that retail grocers provide fresh and affordable fruits, vegetables and other healthy items. Goal four: Create and implement evaluation system Objective one: By May 2015, the progress made toward the obesity prevention among middle aged adults will be evaluated. Strategies 1. Conduct a data inventory and recommend changes to data collection on active living indicators and health eating 1. Incorporate standardized indicators such as physical activity and health eating in to the relevant surveys. 2. Ensure the survey data is available to all the stake holders especially the local government and communities to continuous improvements 3. Document and disseminate positive changes and lesson learned Over view of the model Penm, (2009), observed that obesity prevention is a new area globally, thus there is much evidence about the effectiveness of intervention that is yet to be gathered. This is a disadvantage. However, the interventions proposed in this programme are accompanied by good monitoring and evaluation strategy. This will help in improvement of the program. In addition, the programme borrows a lot from other areas of public health where a comprehensive approach has been taken, which has been successful. Conclusion Obesity is one of the greatest public health challenges that are confronting Australia today. With over 60% of adult, Australia has one of the biggest obese cases among developed nations. Health and psychological cost of overweight and obesity are very high. It is therefore, worthwhile to invest in obesity and overweight prevention programs. Although obesity prevention is a new area globally, there is significant evidence that intervention to improve diet and physical activity improve the condition. This is the reason why, the programs employs the following mitigation measures; promoting the physical activity, and healthy eating, limiting the access and marketing of unhealthy food and beverages, enacting policies that encourage consumption of healthy food and promote access to recreational physical activities. It is important to note that, reversing the trends of rising level of obesity is not possible in short term. Thus, the intervention program will aim to reduce the rate of increase of obesity among middle aged Australians adults. In addition, the intervention program will provide an opportunity to learn and build from these efforts, in order to develop more strategies and best practices in future. References Booth M, O, (2006) Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey. The Medical Journal of Australia. vol. 23, No. 8, pp 300- 413. Chang, J, T (2007), Australia’s health 2006, Australian Institute of Health, vol. 3, No. 4, pp 194-300 Danson G,(2005), Promoting healthy weight: the prevention and management of overweight and obesity in Australia. The Medical Journal of Australia. vol. 20, No. 7, pp 233-278 Dunstan D (2007), International Diabetes Institute. The Medical Journal of Australia. vol. 10, No. 3, pp 94-200 Joseph M,(2008), The Australian Diabetes,obesity and Lifestyle Study, International Diabetes Institute, Melbourne. King L & Bauman A, (2005), Overweight and obesity from childhood to adulthood: Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey The Medical Journal of Australia. vol. 33, No. 12, pp 778-878. Lobstein T, (2006),Obesity in children and young people: a crisis in public health. Obesity, The Medical Journal of Australia. vol. 34, No. 7, pp 455-466. Lopez A, (2009) The burden of disease and injury in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, NSW Department of Health, Sydney. Penm, E,(2009), Cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, NSW Department of Health, Sydney. Stanley L & Lopez A (2007), Burden of disease and injury in Australia in the new millennium: measuring health loss from diseases, injuries and risk factors, The Medical Journal of Australia. vol. 33, No. 12, pp 43- 167 Read More