Introduction

Over the last decades, the issue of obesity has become one of the major healthcare challenges in the context of the world community health and the US in particular. However, with all the population groups having the risk of being overweight, children are the most vulnerable ones in terms of the following issue. The primary purpose of the following research paper is to examine the role of a community nurse in terms of the childhood obesity issue in the example of the case study provided in the setting.

Problem Statement

The notion of childhood obesity has become one of the integral parts of preventive medicine and community health in the US. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, obesity and overweight are defined as a health conditions at which the increasing amount of excess body fat eventually leads to one’s deterioration of health, causing issue-related problems and cardiovascular diseases (CDC, 2020). Thus, the primary issue related to the concept of obesity is the necessity to define tangible ways to reduce the tendency of overweight rates within the state, emphasizing the problem dissemination between children aged 10-19.

Population of Interest

It is rather difficult to outline some of the major population groups that would require more attention in terms of obesity prevention, as the prevalence is considerably high among all the population groups. However, considering the situation presented, the following research paper considers children aged 10-19 to be a primary population of interest when speaking of preventative overweight care and community intervention. As a community nurse, my role as a facilitator will include the process of dialogue established between the community residents and existing events tackling the notion of children’s obesity and overweight.

Key Concepts

Considering the situation in Maria’s family, the issue of obesity is followed by a variety of risk factors, including genetic predisposition to cardiovascular disease and unhealthy BMI rates, racial predisposition to the disease, young age of an adolescent, and gender. Thus, the notions of risk reduction and health promotion are to be of significant relevance within the family unit if they want to avoid quite unpleasant outcomes for their daughter’s health. The former aspect should include regular medical check-ups and having healthy and balanced nutrition patterns, whereas the latter aspects should account for leading a healthy lifestyle by maintaining good mental health and physical activity. Moreover, some social determiners as implicit discrimination and socio-economic peculiarities of the family constitute a significant concept in terms of one’s health.

Theoretical Framework of Behavioral Change

To secure a successful intervention in the patterns of behavioral change, it is of crucial importance to define the theoretical frameworks that would potentially benefit the outcome. Thus, some of the most successful theories in the context concern ecological theory and the concept of planned behavior. Both of these aspects include a close correlation with the average sociological patterns of behavior within the community, leading to a significant impact on the individual’s health (Steinmetz et al., 2016). Considering the following case study, one might assume that as the family of immigrants with no health insurance, the members feel more related to the community of people with a similar social situation. Regarding the fact that the vast majority of adults and children affected by obesity is inspected among the lowest income population groups, it would be relevant to assume that this pattern is tied to the social environment of the individuals, leading to an increasing necessity of immediate community health intervention (CDC, 2020).

Planning Community Intervention/ Funding

When speaking of community intervention planning, the researchers claim that the very process of intervention secures significant improvement rates, whereas the peculiarities of an intervention plan are not that important to the overall outcome (Taveras et al., 2017). Thus, the major target of the following intervention plan will be to draw more public attention to the issue in order to secure improvements in the social security of the obesity risk groups and define communication channels through which preventative actions promotion will be made. The goal will be achieved through health promotion agenda via social media platforms, negotiations with local authorities, and charity endeavors aimed at raising money to improve the community’s quality. Other funding resources will include local authorities’ grant programs and funds devoted to health promotion by the government.

Evaluation of Community-Level Intervention

When speaking of the community’s participation in the process of childhood obesity reduction, it is necessary to point out its major contribution to reducing the overall socio-economic gap between the state residents (Lockyer & Spiro, 2019). Thus, public attitude to the issue, which is directly correlated with the level of problem awareness, is a decisive factor in terms of its reaching a national scope. Currently, the level of community intervention is considerably lower when compared to the increasing rates of obesity prevalence in the country.

Social Marketing/ Resources

The proposed intervention plan is primarily based on active social intervention with the help of social media platforms. Thus, to raise community awareness on the topic, some of the major social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, will be involved in order to share relevant information and up-to-date statistics with the audience, proposing ways to prevent the tendency. Moreover, some of the social activists and medical workers will be involved in collaborations with local opinion leaders in the form of interviews dedicated to the issue.

Research Studies

Some of the relevant research studies concerning the issue include:

• Ash, T., Agaronov, A., Aftosmes-Tobio, A., & Davison, K. K. (2017). Family-based childhood obesity prevention interventions: a systematic review and quantitative content analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1), 113.
• Brown, A. W., Altman, D. G., Baranowski, T., Bland, J. M., Dawson, J. A., Dhurandhar, N. V.,… & Jayawardene, W. (2019). Childhood obesity intervention studies: A narrative review and guide for investigators, authors, editors, reviewers, journalists, and readers to guard against exaggerated effectiveness claims. Obesity Reviews, 20(11), 1523-1541.
• Weihrauch-Blüher, S., & Wiegand, S. (2018). Risk factors and implications of childhood obesity. Current obesity reports, 7(4), 254-259.

Conclusion

Taking everything into consideration, it might be summarized that the notion of childhood obesity has now become an issue everyone is well-aware of, yet uncertain about how to combat the negative tendency. Thus, in terms of the case study provided, an attempt was made to plan a community-based intervention to improve the situation soon. Considering all the possible options, it became evident that one of the most significant aspects of a successful intervention is the ability to establish a proper dialogue with the community decision-makers for them to serve as an example of conscious living in a community.

References

Ash, T., Agaronov, A., Aftosmes-Tobio, A., & Davison, K. K. (2017). Family-based childhood obesity prevention interventions: a systematic review and quantitative content analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1), 113.

Brown, A. W., Altman, D. G., Baranowski, T., Bland, J. M., Dawson, J. A., Dhurandhar, N. V.,… & Jayawardene, W. (2019). Childhood obesity intervention studies: A narrative review and guide for investigators, authors, editors, reviewers, journalists, and readers to guard against exaggerated effectiveness claims. Obesity Reviews, 20(11), 1523-1541.

CDC. (2020). Childhood obesity facts. Web.

CDC. (2020). National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Web. 

Lockyer, S., & Spiro, A. (2019). Socio‐economic inequalities in childhood obesity: can community level interventions help to reduce the gap?. Nutrition Bulletin, 44(4), 381-393.

Steinmetz, H., Knappstein, M., Ajzen, I., Schmidt, P., & Kabst, R. (2016). How effective are behavior change interventions based on the theory of planned behavior?. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 224(3), 216-233.

Taveras, E. M., Marshall, R., Sharifi, M., Avalon, E., Fiechtner, L., Horan, C.,… & Slater, D. (2017). Comparative effectiveness of clinical-community childhood obesity interventions: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA pediatrics, 171(8), e171325-e171325.

Weihrauch-Blüher, S., & Wiegand, S. (2018). Risk factors and implications of childhood obesity. Current obesity reports, 7(4), 254-259.