The Relative Effectiveness of Child Obesity Prevention Programs - Dissertation Example

Download file to see previous pages BMI is calculated from a person’s height and weight and provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems. Establishing healthy habits in youth can help prevent many health problems later on in life which will drastically reduce the costs of healthcare. For this reason, many public health professionals are interested in working with school systems to reach children in school settings. If we look back over the past 50 years we can see dramatic changes in the way children play, eat meals, and socialize. Today lifestyles are busier but less active. (See table 1 in appendix A). Since 1950, the amount of nutritional information available to the public has roughly doubled every seven years. In the years between 1950 and 2000, “obesity rose by 214% until today, where 64.5 percent of adult Americans (about 127 million) are categorized as being overweight or obese” (Weiss, n.d.). Even though technology has taken away the need for most physical activity, there must be steps taken to provide cost-effective solutions and provide a healthier lifestyle for children that will lead to healthy adults. The good news is that schools nationwide are becoming aware of this epidemic and are working with health professionals by taking steps to provide a healthy lifestyle for children.
Schools can play an important role in improving the health of children and the adults they will become. Children generally attend school 5 days a week throughout the calendar year. During childhood and adolescent years, habits develop that determine physical activity and eating habits. These health habits will determine the development of such diseases as cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes which are now major causes of premature death and disabilities in the United States and the Western World. Public Health professionals are very interested in funding school-based programs that can provide a foundation for lifelong healthy behaviors and greatly reduce the burden of these preventable health conditions for both individuals and society as a whole. There is largely an unmet need for effective school-based programs that promote healthy behaviors. It has not been an easy task engaging these partnerships for many reasons, one being funding. With the embracing of these school-based programs by public health professionals, it is imperative that these programs be rigorously evaluated to show effectiveness. To be considered effective these programs must undergo systematic measurement and analysis using solid research methods and study designs. The Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Prevention Research Centers (PRC) engage public health organizations, academic institutions, and communities in partnerships to develop, test, and disseminate programs to improve health outcomes. In some cases, PRC participates in the development of these programs, and in other cases, PRC participates by studying programs that have already been effective. ...Download file to see next pages Read More