Battling Obesity in Adults with health promotion programmes - Essay Example

The research paper “Battling Obesity in Adults with health promotion programmes” examines the unhealthy lifestyle habits and ways of preventing a serious contemporary public health issue, obesity. Obesity is becoming very common with the current lifestyles of people. Nowadays, life is made more convenient by technology and the accessibility of basic needs. For example, instead of walking to the store to buy things, one can just call for delivery. Instead of cooking food from scratch, one can just buy “fast food” or heat up instant meals in the microwave oven.

These lifestyle habits are likely to cause weight gain in people especially if they do not engage in physical activities. If not controlled, it can even lead to obesity. It is posing a big health problem not only of the individual but for families and society in general. Overweight and obese individuals have an increased risk to illnesses and disease such as heart disease, stroke and other deadly diseases. Hence, a health awareness program for the prevention of obesity as well as some interventions to treat obesity should be put in place.

It is part of the nurses’ duties to ensure the health and well-being of patients through preventative strategies such as health promotion. Since being overweight and obese is getting to be more common, nurses need to be educated on its risks, causes and prevention so they can explain it well to their patients, as well as practice healthy living themselves so as to keep physically fit. (Sellwood, 2013). With life/work getting more complicated and busy, people resort to fast food for convenience, but these are all filled with processed ingredients which are not healthy to consume (Tiggermann, 2004).

Instead of such convenience food, nurses can advise their patients to eat freshly cooked food, fresh fruits and vegetables for better nutrition. Preparing food from scratch may take more time and effort, but nurses need to emphasize to their patients that these are better for them in the long run, as their health should be their priority. In order to be credible nurses, they need to model their conviction to be healthy. That is why they need to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills to implement appropriate health promotion programmes (Hayden, 2008; Azjen, 1985; Ewles & Simnett, 2004).

Obesity exists when there is an excess fat in the body which adversely affects the health and well-being of individuals. (Mascie-Taylor & Goto, 2007). The body fat is measured with the body mass index (BMI). Brewis (2010) shares that when the BMI level of an individual goes over 25 kg/m2 , then he or she may be classified as overweight. If the BMI level reaches 30 kg/m2 and over, then it is already classified as obesity. Currently a major health problem, obesity contributes to increased morbidity and mortality among adults.

It makes them more vulnerable to cardiovascular illnesses. The significant increase in mortality of obese patients with cardiovascular disease is a cause for alarm (Parsons et al., 2005). Obesity has likewise been associated with other medical conditions resulting in human suffering and health care costs, becoming an increasing burden to those afflicted with it, their families, and the government (Finkelstein et al. 2003). It is considered the fifth major cause of death globally as more than 2.

8 million deaths annually result from this disease (WHO, 2011). It has also been reported that more than 23% of ischaemic heart disease, 44% of diabetes and 7% to 41% of some cancer burdens are caused or aggravated by obesity (WHO, 2011). From the latest update of the World Health