Action Plan for Childhood Obesity in the UK - Essay Example

"Action Plan for Childhood Obesity in the UK" is an outstanding example of a paper on social and family issues. Since the 1970s, the commonness of childhood obesity in the UK has increased continuously. Hence, it is valuable to formulate strategies to mitigate this issue of children’s health inequality.

Action # 1

            The rationale of weight control initiatives for children is the awareness of the child and the family of which foods are most probable to bring about or sustain obesity. Because the family, especially the parents, is responsible for acquiring, cooking, and preparing foods, they will be invited to take part in a comprehensive nutrition education program.

Result Statement

            It is most likely that the nutrition education program will affect parental behavior to encourage hale and hearty eating habits and physical activities in children by adhering to a preventive control framework for health and fitness.

Action Steps

(1) The staff of the nutrition education program, alongside academics in prevention studies, will create a tailored childhood obesity prevention course.    

(2) The parents and other participants will attend educational lectures twice a month and an individual meeting with a licensed nutritionist and health care provider twice a month. The educational lectures will be administered by nutritionists. 

(3) Dietary programs which strictly regular calorie intake will be offered to the most obese children, and will be performed under the supervision of a doctor who has been rigorously trained in these dietary programs. Two of immediate dietary programs will be carried out: (1) the protein-sparing modified fast diet (PSMF), and (2) the very low kcal diet (VLCD).   

Measuring Progress

            Reports from the parent on the attitudes and behaviors of their children monitored within a week will be used to evaluate the child’s level of nutrition and activity. Items on the report sheet will be adapted from current child surveys based on self-efficacy and social-cognitive models. Regular clinical screenings will be carried out to reliably evaluate the program’s progress. Since several preventive initiatives carried out in daily situations have given valuable information for promotion and nutrition education programs, an assessment plan related to plans detailed in the current literature will be chosen as the most suitable technique for measuring progress.   

Monitoring Implementation

            This task will be carried out by the staff members and participating groups in the nearby communities. Every clinical and educational group will be given a handbook containing the whole mission, vision, guidelines, and techniques of the nutrition education program. The nutrition and activity guidelines given to the staff members will reflect those employed in the nutrition education courses in order for the staff to appreciate the difficulties the parents and other participants are encountering. Every month, community partners will be given nutrition education resources as part of the monitoring program. These resources are similar to the resources being utilized in the clinical setting.   

Evidence

            A randomized clinical test with variation in children’s weight as a result of the nutrition education program has to verify the relationship between children's health attitudes and BMI condition and parents’ health behaviors. If this relationship is verified, this nutrition education program may have feasible uses in other contexts that offer services to poor parents, like the Head Start initiative.  

Action # 2

            An inseparable element of a core weight control initiative for children requires remedying several of the routines which caused obesity and training the child to respond correctly to the daily situations which raise the risk of obesity.

Result Statement

            The effectiveness of this behavior modification (BM) program will depend on the eagerness of the parents to take part. The most likely results of this BM program are variations in eating routine, such as eating while watching television, eating between meals, eating while resting, and eating after a tense or stressful life event.     

Action Steps

(1) Self-monitoring. Parents will be educated about the importance of keeping a dietary and physical activity journal wherein the variety and amount of all foods consumed and exercises performed are recorded and will be afterward assessed by the nutritionist once a month. 

(2) Stimulus control. Parents will be trained how to confine eating in the dining room, by avoiding buying and preparing calorie-heavy food, by preparing an exact amount of food for one meal, by supervising their children’s food serving, and by removing diversions like the television which encourage hasty and too much eating.

(3) Cognitive restructuring. Children will be educated on how to cope with criticism or negative remarks of other people and thereby lessening their own frustration with themselves.

Measuring Progress

            Nothing is as frustrating to everybody concerned as to when the overweight or obese child intimately adheres to BM program guidelines, and still on evaluations displays no apparent changes in eating behaviors or weight loss. Because of this, the program will measure progress by comparing modifications in BMI, as well as by evaluating positive modifications in self-esteem, eating habits, and other environmental forces that could have promoted obesity.  

Monitoring Implementation

            The BM program will distribute electronic questionnaires to community members. Answering these electronic questionnaires will be obligatory and will be a portion of the state’s assessment objectives. These reports will provide information valuable to assess the effectiveness of the program and will be used to provide involve state agencies and legislators with knowledge of the vital achievements of the program.  

Evidence

            Numerous therapists support concrete incentives to help promote positive modifications in behavior. Non-food, well-prepared, and sensible incentives can give the child a sense of worth and feeling of achievement.