Reducing Incidences of Child Obesity - Research Proposal Example

Reducing Incidences of Child Obesity Many people have different notions of what child obesity is all about. Many define it as excess body fat but no consensus has been attained over the cutoff point of what is excess fat amongst children. Nonetheless, it is always important to have a good chance to meet the measures that will drive obesity levels lower. This will only be possible if the causes are known beforehand and considered as the ideal measures of the society as a whole. As such, the causes may be difficult to ascertain as a result of the complexity of the disease, but one of the main methods of identifying the causes is by understanding that when the energy intake exceeds the expenditure, one will start gaining weight. The imbalance leads to such weight differences and redefines the way children will develop later in life. Genetic factors also form a huge part of the obesity trends. Many children are seen to be susceptible to obesity-conducive genes, which makes it easier to develop such weight problems if the parents do not offer a chance to capitalize on retaining a healthy lifestyle always. The important thing is to generate new understanding of what obesity is all about. The case involving the utility of the resources available for the sake of intervening in the very early years as a way of preventing the obesity from taking shape and allowing the society to move from a rationale way of dealing with the issue to an emotional one. Many of the parents fear that keeping their children from the junk they are used to may be a way of keeping them away from themselves (Rippe, 2013). This means that they do not offer them any guidance that could provide them with a chance of dealing with the issue when it is still in its early stages (Gorard, 2013). Evidence from difference sources highlights the impact that lifestyle choices could have in tracking obesity and allowing adults to lose weight and keep fit, as well as allow the children to choose better lifestyles. The purpose of introducing the changes from a tender age is the fact that they are easily receptive at this age (Rippe, 2013). Preventing its occurrence is essential as a way of managing the weight issues amongst the children. Background and Significance of the Study Obesity amongst children has in many developed countries reached epidemic levels. This means that so many children are falling into this trap when they are much younger than they should be. At least 25% of the children in the US alone are in the overweight category with 11% of these falling into the obese category (Ahima, 2013). In Canada, the rate for those between 2 years and 17 years increased from 15% to 26% between 1979 and 2004. Those between 12 and 17 were the highest casualties, providing an interesting argument over the impact this had in the society over this period (Farley & Dowell, 2014). The teenage period, and the absence of the parents most of the time made it easier to indulge in unhealthy activities that made it easier to gain more weight because they were not getting any healthy meals to fed on (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2014). It was also difficult to ascertain the impact this would have on the society due to the complications seen in the way most of the children handle their feeding. Junk food has also become so common in schools and parents are giving their children no limitations towards what they can eat (Bray, 2014). Obesity and overweight conditions in childhood have effects on both the psychological and physical health of a child. This means that the society must look for new ways of meeting these demands that will provide the child with a chance to have a healthy lifestyle that moves from the ailing attributes seen amongst a majority of them. New ways of handling condition amongst children already affected will be discussed to assist so many in leading better lives later on in life (Rippe, 2013). It will be important to come up with new means of dealing with the issues at hand so that the epidemic levels with mechanisms that will assure children a better lifestyle later in life. Eventually, people will have to move to better lifestyle conditions for the sake of their children. When children are born overweight, studies show that it is a pointer towards having an overweight child later on in life (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2014). From this stage, it should be easy to deal with the weight issues and allow the child to start a better life from a tender age. These interventions are easy to start from such a tender age, and should be the main concern amongst parents and nutritionists. Problem Statement and Purpose of the Study Over time, researchers agree that prevention is a better strategy for child obesity compared to treating children already suffering from it. Eventually, most of the children require an ample environment that will allow control of the epidemic before it gets out of hand (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2014). Many people argue that a variety of methods do exist that could allow the proper development of control mechanisms that would work best for the sake of maintaining a better generation in the future (Farley & Dowell, 2014). This means coming up with frameworks that work for the betterment of these children as they grow up. In many cases, children are easy to tame and could be a perfect time to apply both the secondary and primary interventions that would be quite essential in determining the way things happen within the school setting (Wozney, 2014). This research will look for different ways of assisting children to make sense of their situation and come up with new ways of enjoying the chances presented to them within the school setting. It will be an opportunity to learn how parents can assist their children, and the benefits accrued from having all these interventions applied to the child at different stages of growth. Child obesity is an issue that should be tackled at the earliest instance, and interventions to control its development are important. Literature Review Summary of Study Notably, the impact of obesity amongst children is quite difficult to deal with as a way of managing the children at a tender age. The department of children showed that at the start of school more than 13% children were overweight and 10% of them were obese. By the end of the primary level, the overweight children rose to 14% and the obese were 17% (Wozney, 2014). At puberty, the numbers increased because most of the children gained weight while they were below five years. As such, parents are expected to make the hugest efforts before they can leave it to the teachers (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2014). So many frameworks can be used to ensure that children have the assistance they need to make sure that they live healthy lives. The interventions chosen must apply to the child and be relevant based on the culture, environment, background, and social status (Farley & Dowell, 2014). Research Question, Hypothesis, and Variables with Operational Definitions The research question is: What can be done to assist children under the age of 8 to have a life without obesity and overweight issues? Hypothesis: Primary and secondary intervention methods are enough to deal with the issue of obesity amongst children. Variables The independent variable is the child’s weight The dependent variables are the environment and diet The controlled variable is the age Theoretical Framework The environmental factors, lifestyle preferences, and the culture one is in ae very good determinants of how obesity can be controlled. Many people believe that the environment is very critical in determining what one feeds the behaviors and both the culture and the environment shape social factors one indulges in (Rippe, 2013). Diets are very effective in determining this. The role of the society is to come up with new methods of handling issues as they occur. The price of food, for instance, has been going down and the foods that were previously thought to be for a higher social class such as burgers and ham are now available to different social classes (Wozney, 2014). This means that more people will have to continue working on such attributes for the sake of redefining the growing attributes of the social class within the society (Rippe, 2013). Ideally, the society has taken up diets that require more information on consumption, but very few people are looking at ways of having better intake (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2014). The calorie intake for children is quite high and the adults who have no idea on ways of leveraging the imbalance many engage in over time. The lack of a balanced diet has been blamed for the increased number of persons suffering from obesity and overweight issues in many developed nations (Wozney, 2014). Physical activity is an important aspect that many children are not exposed to in many places. Parents have very few hours with their children, and the advances in technology have also made it difficult to maintain an active lifestyle (Jackson, 2013). Social media has made so many lose the chance to be actively involved in any physical active. The goal is to get these children out of the seats and get into playfield s where they can engage in different activities. The idea is to get as many people as possible working on the different activities that will assist in energy expenditure at all times (Cohen & Arieli, 2011). The idea is to generate as much impact as possible based on what they can attain, something that will result in breaking down the energy that could naturally be broken down by involving in such activities over the shortest time possible (Voigt, Nicholls & Williams, 2014). Some parents are to blame, however, because they say it is easier having their children watch television rather than engaging in sporting activities due to the inability to monitor them due to busy schedules (Wozney, 2014). Unlike before when most of the students used to walk to school, a larger proportion is driven today and that means that they are always accorded some privileges that do not favor them at all. Theory and its Application Looking for preventive measures is an essential part that requires an increased awareness of the issues that researchers, clinicians and nutritionists are working on to meet the main ideals of the society as a whole (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2014). The goal is to bring out the important interventions that can work on children under a certain age without wasting time on issues that may derail the achievement of results within the society (Ahima, 2013). The goal is to drive the children towards a healthy path, and make sure that their parents are on board as well. That will boost the efforts of these interventions (Wozney, 2014). Prevention will be primary, which works on the issue of obesity specifically, and secondary, which works on the avoidance of weight gains especially amongst those seen as obese (Voigt, Nicholls & Williams, 2014). It will involve building the right environment and training parents and guardians to follow these steps towards meeting the main ideals of the society as a whole (Voigt, Nicholls & Williams, 2014). Eventually, the goal will be to generate a new understanding of the issues that could influence the growth of the children towards a better lifestyle. Schools will also be on board to allow an all-round process for the sake of meeting the focus of preventing such children from suffering from the disease (Ahima, 2013). Methodology The sampled children will be taken randomly from a center where they will be diagnosed by the pediatricians to be either overweight or obese. That means that they will be in school or preparing to get into school as a way of making it easier to deal with the follow-ups. The strategy is to get the children that are aged between 5 and 12 years to document their journey and the kind of lifestyle they live. This will be a quasi-experiment with the extraneous variables being the social status of the children and the time allocated for physical activities. These will be controlled by having a chance to work on the various issues that redefine the experiment from the start. A number of children from various backgrounds will be considered and the results calibrated thereafter. The instrument of choice is the obesity and weight-loss quality of life instrument as well as the utility of the weight-related symptom measure. These instruments will be critical in offering a chance to redefine the reliability and validity of the experiment by reconsidering the precision and accuracy of the results attained through testing and retesting to affirm reproducibility. The intervention in this study will revolve around the training of the teachers and parents to assess their children after a period of two weeks to measure the consistency of the actions taken towards meeting the goals of the research. A mixture of both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to attain the best results (Dawes, 2014). This allows a better understanding of the market based on various parameters. Surveys will be sent out to parents and teachers, with online surveys also considered to help reach out to more professionals and parents to assist in documenting their children’s journey. Questionnaires will be mailed to them to ascertain the impact of interventions. Research will also feature documentation from primary sources assessed through the university library as a way of improving knowledge on the obesity trends in the country. The data will be analyzed using SPSS and the grounded theory. Grounded theory will aim at providing a new means of defining the data attained as well as provide the needed interpretation to assist in meeting the requisite ideals within the topic of discussion. It will help in adding more knowledge based on the questionnaires put out as well as the surveys (Cohen & Arieli, 2011). To analyze the data, regression analysis will be used to test the formulated hypothesis. Descriptive statistics will assist in the prediction of numerical outcomes by coming up with a measure of central tendency that can be banked on (Green, 2013). The means of inferential statistics in use herein will depend solely on the ability to test the hypothesis based on the variables present. Ethical Considerations When conducting primary research, there are points that one needs to understand first, the people to be involved must grant permission for the study to be conducted and to involve them (Cohen & Arieli, 2011). This will allow them to participate comfortably in the study without any issues. It is also essential to define the extent to which the study will be conducted. In case of any approval needed, the researcher will have to seek for the concerned boards to offer them a chance to meet their goals evenly. This implies a need to realize the goals of the study by passing the required minimum requirements hurdle to give them a safe passage into the considerations (Green, 2013). It is critical that the context is presented as it is rather than what the researcher expects. This will provide better understanding and generate trust between the researcher and the respondents. Limitations of the Study The only noted limitations are in terms of increased variable and very little time to measure the effects of all variables. The research will handle a small percentage, but more room is left for future studies. Further, parents may not be as keen to see their children enrol into the program, making it difficult to attain the required number of persons into the study. Implications for Practice This study will be an important art of the nursing fraternity as the professionals will understand what to do when dealing with the issues taking place within the organization. Further, the nurses will understand what to do from their point of interaction with the patients, which will avoid any issues of ignorance. References Ahima, R. (Ed.). (2013). Childhood obesity: Prevalence, pathophysiology, and management. (Illustrated ed.). Hoboken: CRC Press. Bray, G. (2014). Handbook of obesity: Epidemiology, etiology, and physiopathology (3rd ed.). Boca Raton: Routledge. Cohen, N., & Arieli, T. (2011). Field research in conflict environments: Methodological challenges and snowball sampling. Journal of Peace Research 48 (4), 423–436. Dawes, L. (2014). Childhood obesity in America: Biography of an epidemic (Illustrated ed.). Boston: Harvard University Press. Farley, T., & Dowell, D. (2014). Preventing childhood obesity: what are we doing right? American Journal of Public Health, 104(9), 1579-1583. Gorard, S. (2013). Research Design: Robust approaches for the social sciences. London: SAGE Green, L. (2013). Evaluating obesity prevention efforts: A plan for measuring progress. Basingstoke: National Academies Press. Jackson, C. (Ed.). (2013). Childhood obesity: Causes, management and challenges. London: Nova Science. Rippe, J. (Ed.). (2013). Lifestyle medicine. Malden, Mass., USA: CRC Press. Voigt, K., Nicholls, S., & Williams, G. (2014). Childhood obesity: Ethical and policy issues. New York: OUP USA. Wozney, N. (2014). Childhood Obesity and the Relationship to Well-Child Visits. New York: Lap Lambert Academic Publishing GmbH KG. Yanovski, S. Z., & Yanovski, J. A. (2014). Long-term drug treatment for obesity: A systematic and clinical review. JAMA: the Journal of the American Medical Association (Review) 311(1), 74–86. Appendices Center number: Study number: Patient ID: Consent Form Project title: Chief investigator: Tick inside the box 1. I do affirm that I have read and understood the information sheet provided by the researcher for the study above. I have made all due considerations regarding the information needed, asked relevant questions and received satisfactory answers. 2. I affirm my participation is voluntary at all times, and can withdraw from participation at any time without giving reason, without my legal rights and medical care being affected at all. 3. I am aware that relevant personnel will look at my medical information. As such, I approve the use and access of my records as may be necessary. 4. I approve that my GP be kept abreast with my results during the study. 5. I ascertain that I have not been coerced to participate in this study. __________________ ______________ ________________ Name Date Signature Read More