Child Health Care Practices: Childhood Obesity - Essay Example

? Literature Review on Critique of current evidence related to women's, men’s, family and child Health Care Practices Childhood Obesity Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Body 4 Obesity Causes and Useful Recommendations 4 Impact of Childhood Obesity Syndrome on the Families and Society 4 Obesity and Policy Considerations 7 Obesity and Current Nursing Parameters 9 Conclusion 10 References 12 Introduction Obesity is observed to be a growing menace in the lives of children all over the world. Pereira (2009) et al. observes that the intensity of growth of the disease spread in such a manner that during the period of 2005 marked it as a growing epidemic. It is found that during the period ranging from 1989 to 1998 the rate of growth of obesity in United Kingdom increased from 5.4 to 9.2 percent. Similarly in country like United States the rate of growth of child obesity is found to rise from 6.5 percent during 1980s to around 18.8 percent during the period of 2004. This rise in child obesity conditions counted a dramatic rise in not only developed nations but also in developing countries. Pereira (2009) et al. further observes that the intensity of rise in child obesity holds large amount of significance owing to several factors. Firstly the prevalence of obesity among children is a precondition of obesity for adolescents. Secondly the condition of being obsessed among children also amounts to the emergence of several chronic diseases pertaining to heart and bones. Thirdly the growth of obesity among children was also found to be a correlated factor to the emergence of psychiatric or behavioral problems. It is because owing to the factor of obesity the children reflected fear of attending schools and public spaces for the chances of being rebuked. In the fourth case the happening of obesity is also taken to contribute to the emergence of diabetes among children. Henceforth Pereira (2009) et al. states that in order to reduce the intensity of such menace the government of different countries need to become largely alert and must endeavor to measure the changes in ‘body mass index’ of the children (Pereira, 2009, p.682-683). The paper in this regard endeavors to elucidate the impacts of obesity on the family members of the children and also on the lives of the affected. Further it also focuses on the rise and development of nursing practices in such regard. Body Obesity Causes and Useful Recommendations Obesity or the tendencies of growing fat in children is seen to take the form of a growing epidemic among children of both developed and developing nations. Hills, King and Armstrong (2007) mention in this regard the main factors which lead to the rise in the event of obesity in children. Variations are observed among children in regards to their food habits, social and sporting events and also in the ways pertaining to their commutation to educational institutions. Children nowadays in sharp contrast to earlier ones are found to take resort to fast foods leaving alone food stuffs containing large quantity of fiber materials in them. This has led to the accumulation of body fat. Further again in regards to social and sporting events the children of the current era are more prone to sitting before computers and video consoles playing games avoiding outdoor activities. This has led to the rise of sedentary lifestyles leading to much obesity. Parents of the children also tend to increase the use of car while transporting their siblings to schools thus enhancing the sedentary effects in the children. Henceforth an increase in the intake of fibrous food articles together with enhancing the physical activities in the children need to be governed monitored and controlled by the parents to help them fight the growing epidemic of obesity (Hills, King and Armstrong, 2007, p.541-543). Impact of Childhood Obesity Syndrome on the Families and Society The rapid rise in the event of child obesity in both developed and developing countries has rendered deep impacts on both the families of the children and to the society at large. Maher, Fraser and Lindsay (2010) state that in countries like Australia the impact of child obesity has led the government to render large amount investments. The impact of public spending raised from a figure of 7 to 21 million dollars during the period ranging from 2001 to 2008. The figure reached to about 30 million during the 2009 period. Rise in the event of child obesity closely studied shows an increased relevance to the manner in which mothers including both household and working women tend to prepare food for their siblings. Mothers in their endeavor to prepare the best possible food for their children often tend to create a mistake of going for the larger and bigger ones. The intake of bigger quantity of food in a spontaneous fashion is thought by the mothers as would help in making their children stronger and healthier. However the same event tends to create much obesity in the children. Further observance shows that working mothers tend to be largely attracted by branded foods which are basically of junk nature. These food stuffs available in fast food corners often contribute in making the children obsess. In this connection Maher, Fraser and Lindsay (2010) further state that preparing for the diet of children involves both the women and the government at large where the former is considered only a role player. Thus the government of a country must endeavor to work with the mothers to help the children get the right quantity of food required to sustain a healthy life free of obesity (Maher, Fraser and Lindsay, 2010, p.304-313). It is further observed that children are deeply influenced by the large number of advertisements advertised in the televisions regarding food elements which in turn contributes in making the children obese. Yu (2011) observes in this context that the media companies by using a number of carton and other popular characters tend to attract the children to such advertisements. Children nowadays are observed to have become larger viewers of television commercials than in earlier times making them largely prone to the epidemic of obesity. Further it is observed that children other than seeing television also feel largely attracted to video gaming and other stuffs on computers making them more dependable on gaining sedentary lifestyles. The above fact in turn contributes in making the children more obese. A comparison made along the 1970s period shows that children pertaining to the age group ranging from 6 to 11 years have become obese by around five more times during the 2005 period. In addition to the children’s failure to restrict their interest towards the television commercials seemingly cognitive in nature the creation of fast food hubs in and around school corners further adds to the effect in making them obese. Children of poor and working mothers are found to take increased resort to fast food products than of those who tend to spend increased time with their children to let them get free of the habit. Thus proper communication and emotional styles of the parents along with the reduction of dependence on media in selecting food tastes for the children would help in reduction of the menace of obesity (Yu, 2011, p.100-104). In the context of child obesity Sanigorski (2011) et al. observes that in poor nutritional areas the children become also prone to the intake of low grade water running from the taps. This is mostly found in most developing and underdeveloped nations where the water running from taps is filled with elements like fluoride making it not only contaminated but also unfits for drinking purposes. In this regard it is found that the parents of the children in such areas tend to help their children gain increased resort to fruit drinks and other such beverages thus substituting the water from taps. However again the increased dependence on beverages and other drinks filled with high glucose content is found to increase the intensity of obesity for children. Hence the government of such countries is required to take key steps to help in the reduction of fluoride content in the tap waters and also in training the local people to help their children get safe drinks. Parents in this regard are also required to choose the drinks in a safer manner by avoiding drinks containing high glucose content and beverages for their children in order to protect them from obesity (Sanigorski, 2011, et al., p.2-3). The increased incidence of obesity renders increased responsibility over the shoulders of the community of social workers acting in the larger society. Lawrence, Hazlett, and Hightower (2010) state that social workers can act at the primary level and help the parents and the school authorities decide on the pattern of diet to be offered to the children. Increased intake of healthy and nutritious food prepared at homes through controlled restrictions on external diet practices would help the children. Again in schools the practice of generating healthy diets in snack stations would help the children gain interest in the intake of the right food. Clark (2008) observes that an existence of a child suffering from obesity is considered as a burden for poor households. It is because the child suffering from obesity would require larger dresses and also would require greater quantity of food to sustain their daily living. Furthermore the family also suffers from an increased burden of arranging a health insurance for the children suffering from obesity and also in requiring arranging medical assistance thus increasing the cost of living (Clark, 2008, p.141). Obesity and Policy Considerations The high amount of incidence of obesity among children provoked many nations to bring about policies and set of recommendations in such respect to tackle the growing epidemic. Haby (2006) states in this direction that the government of Australia in order to tackle the increased impact of obesity brought out certain policy programs like ACE-Obesity. This program brought about by the government of Australia focused on generating policy recommendations for helping in the reduction of incidence of the epidemic on such a large scale. Again the above program also worked to bring about feasible and economic initiatives to help the local people fight the growing menace. The program worked along both technical and economic grounds in gathering data related to the ‘body mass index’ parameters of children based along different strata and also tended to evaluate their economic and demographic conditions. Policy recommendations and interventions in regards to tackling obesity need to be taken through the mode of effective prioritization of such based on its technical and economic feasibility and social effectiveness. Generalization of the studies made under the program for ACE-Obesity pertaining to the Australian region is being propagated also to other countries both developed and developing. However care must be taken to understand the variations in terms of culture, eating and health habits, education and other psychological parameters of the people belonging to the different nations (Haby, 2006, p.1471-1473). Benjamins and Whitman (2010) render further policy recommendations in regards to reduction of obesity pertaining to children. The authors recommend in this respect that schools pertaining to different communities and cultures should take active directions in this step. Schools can work in designing a health curriculum wherein collective efforts of dieticians and other health experts can be incorporated. Similarly the schools need to fix a parameter to measure the changes in body weight and take active steps. A health policy should be made at the school level with the close anticipation of the parents and must be reviewed on periodic basis to help combat obesity (Benjamins and Whitman, 2010, p.379-380). Brockman, Jago and Fox (2011) in regards to the issue of policy considerations for helping the children fight obesity state that the government must take specific considerations in creating safe areas for helping the children play outdoors. Such encouragement would eventually encourage the children to take resort to active sports which in turn would reduce their fat (Brockman, Jago and Fox, 2011, p.6). Obesity and Current Nursing Parameters In order to combat the growing menace of obesity the people belonging to different countries of the world are required to change the practices relating to their living and feeding conditions. Tsiros et al. (2009) observes in this respect that increasing incidence of obesity tends to impair the quality of life of the individuals in a myriad number of ways. Firstly the incidence of obesity reduces the physical activity of the individuals. Secondly higher amount of obesity is also found to have strong correlation with impairing the psychological dynamism of the individuals through restricting their socialization activities. Thirdly owing to increased obesity the people are often prone to be under stressful situations involving higher muscular pain. In regards to children it is found that increased incidence of obesity tends to have psychological impacts over the young minds making them feel inferior. Thus it contributes in impairing the quality of life of such individuals. Proper nursing actions needs to be taken thus involving exercises and other physical activities to help reduce the body weight of the children and hence improve the quality of life (Tsiros et al., 2009, p.387-388). In regards to nursing implications regarding obesity Jackson et al. (2005) observes that both parents and health experts like nurses tend to suffer from misconceptions relating to the reasons for child obesity. Owing to such misconceptions the parents and other social and other medical benefactors fail to identify the symptoms of obesity and refer to getting fat as being healthy. Thus proper guidelines need to be framed to help identify the realms of obesity (Jackson et al., 2005, p.8-9). Jackson et al. (2005) states that the involvement of parents in regards to helping their siblings fights with obesity are highly required. Parents are required to form strategic guidelines to help their siblings gain confidence in fighting with the disease through leaving of sweet intakes. Again encouragement in regards to increased participation in physical and social activities by the parents helps in curbing the inferiority complex of the child (Jackson et al., 2005, p.11-12). Walker and Hill (2009) also state that the increasing incidence of obesity among children has led to the rise of ailments like depression and other inferiority complexes. The authors state that events like irregular eating habits gives rise to the events like obesity (Walker and Hill, 2009, p.114-115). Conclusion Obesity is found to be an increasing epidemic grappling all children of the world whether belonging to developed or of developing nations. This epidemic results in generating large number of ailments both on the physical and psychological scale which in turn are disturbing the parent communities around the globe. Large number of researches and governmental actions are being taken to help the children fight with the growing menace. Children owing to increased resort to events like video gaming and playing games on computers have literally stopped visiting outdoors for taking part in active sports. Further the large scale dependence on junk food has led to the growth of menace called obesity. In this light the parents are required to get increased training about how to help their children to avoid taking junk food. The incidence of the above fact is found more in regards to working women. Thus parental action and support is highly recommended to help the children get a safer future. References Pereira, S. et al. (2010). Prevalence of overweight, obesity and physical activity levels in children from Azores Islands. Annals of Human Biology. 37(5): 682 – 691. Maher, J., Fraser, S., and Lindsay, J. (2010). Between provisioning and consuming?: Children, mothers and ‘childhood obesity’. Health Sociology Review. 19(3): 304–316. Yu, H. (2011). Parental Communication Style’s Impact on Children’s Attitudes Toward Obesity and Food Advertising. The Journal of Consumer Affairs. 45(1): 87–107. Sanigorski, A. (2011). Splash!: a prospective birth cohort study of the impact of environmental, social and family-level influences on child oral health and obesity related risk factors and outcomes. BMC Public Health. 11. Haby, M. (2006). A new approach to assessing the health benefit from obesity interventions in children and adolescents: the assessing cost-effectiveness in obesity project. International Journal of Obesity. 30:1463-1475. Hills, A., King, N., and Armstrong, T. (2007). The Contribution of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviours to the Growth and Development of Children and Adolescents. Sports Medicine. 37 (6): 533-545. Tsiros, M. (2009). Health-related quality of life in obese children and adolescents. International Journal of Obesity. 33:387-400. Benjamins, M., and Whitman, S. (2010). A Culturally Appropriate School Wellness Initiative: Results of a 2 -Year Pilot Intervention in 2 Jewish Schools. Journal of School Health. 80(8): 378 -386. Lawrence, S., Hazlett, R. and Hightower, P. (2010). Understanding and Acting on the Growing Childhood and Adolescent Weight Crisis: A Role for Social Work. Health and Social Work. 35(2). Jackson, D. (2005). Mothers' Perceptions of Overweight and Obesity in Their Children. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing. 23(2). Clark, L. (2008). The Complex and Untidy Science of Childhood Obesity Mirrors the Complexity of Practice. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing. 13(3). Jackson, D. (2005). Overweight and obese children: mothers’ strategies. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 52(1): 6–13 Brockman, R., Jago, R., and Fox, K. (2011). Children’s active play: self-reported motivators, barriers and facilitators. BMC Public Health 2011, 11. Walker, L., and Hill, A. (2009). Obesity: The Role of Child Mental Health Services. Child and Adolescent Mental Health. 14(3):114–120 Read More