Reducing Childhood Obesity: A Cooperative Effort

Childhood obesity is a health issue for the United States. To overcome this crisis, it will involve the cooperation of parents, teachers, elected officials, and those most affected, America’s children. While stopping childhood obesity is the issue at hand, educating parents and figures of authority in a child’s life is the first step to slowing down obesity. As America’s adults are reaching high percentages of obesity, it is no longer a conversation, but an epidemic that must be remedied. Adult eating habits are passed down to their children, so it is difficult to break the cycle. Health care professionals are in a unique position because they interact with parents and their children. When parents are uninformed about the food choices they make, this directly impacts the health of the entire family and parents will continue to make bad choices. Childhood obesity is a very complex issue and the solutions are multiple. A priority to help people understand the short- and long-term dangers of being overweight or obese and how it directly affects them is one answer.

Obesity and the Role of Health Care

Reversing the trend of obesity is a public health issue. Health care professionals (HCPs) are in a unique position to encourage lifestyle changes in mothers and children. They interact with patients daily and can combine their medical knowledge to communicate with patients in a meaningful way. To reverse obesity involves not only HCPs but the entire community. This includes public education representatives, social service organizations and individual families. Unfortunately, there are multiple obstacles to preventing and reversing obesity. The availability of inexpensive unhealthy food is one. Additionally, not knowing about healthy eating and how to critically read food labels is also a hindrance. The food industry, especially manufacturers of packaged and frozen foods sends mixed messages to consumers. Food items may be promoted as low fat, but they may also have excess salt and sugar and numerous unhealthy additives and preservatives in them.

However, HCPs can enact change by educating their patients. One of the most difficult challenges is encouraging parents to make the necessary lifestyle adjustments for themselves and their children. Parents are responsible for their children’s diets. However, a study among HCPs revealed some basic reasons for obesity in their patients is too much fast food consumption, watching too much television and having sedentary lifestyles (Spivack, 2010). The challenge for HCPs is communicating the seriousness of the problem to parents in such a way that it will result in lifestyle changes. Reinforcement of this message from educational institutions, community centers, and governmental agencies will help. First Lady Michelle Obama has initiated the “Let’s Move” initiative as her response to childhood obesity. In 2011, President Obama assigned a task force to study obesity and to come up with solutions on how to reduce it to 5%, as it was before 1970 (“Summary of Recommendations,” 2010). The result was a list of recommendations such as pre-pregnancy nutrition education, HCPs encouraging breastfeeding, research into chemicals prone to cause obesity and recommending less time on digital media are a few from an extensive list. HCPs play a significant role in implementing these recommendations along with current federal and local agencies.

Educating families is the most obvious line of defense to childhood obesity. The state of Florida’s obesity rates are expected to climb to 58% by the year 2030 and that is an increase of over 100%, based on the 2011 percentage of 26%. (“Adult Obesity Rate in Florida,” 2012). The strategically situated professionals to initiate education rest with primary care physicians and nurses. Healthcare professionals interact with their patients at the beginning of life and the end of it. Although the task is daunting, if support from the public and private institutions is aggressive then the goal of realizing reduced obesity in children will be attainable.

Food Messages in Public Schools

A realistic remedy is to focus is on education; therefore, the public-school system is the first place to begin this conversation. While many states have instituted healthier eating programs administered by school districts with the federal mandate under First Lady Obama, this is simply not enough. First, not all lunches are equal. The quality of food though targeted to meet federal guidelines contains items children simply are not eating. Therefore, the first problem which needs addressing is consistent food preparation. Many schools across the country do not have cafeterias and food is brought in from a third-party service. This happens at many urban schools in large, populated areas such as Chicago, IL. Good food that is low in quality such as wilted lettuce and old fruit sends the wrong message to children about eating. Items such as chicken nuggets and pizza, cheese and bologna, are processed items and unhealthy diet choices. The issue here is that daily meals are not enough of a change to seriously impact the problem of obesity. In the state of Florida, certain counties provide free lunch to all students if over forty percent of the student body is low income (Patrick, 2013). This may address the problem of making sure students have at least one meal a day, but it does not significantly improve eating behavior and patterns.

Childhood obesity starts at home. This is a reality because preschool level children are already overweight. A 2010 Florida study on childhood obesity noted that in some counties children between two and four, the obesity rate was nineteen percent, in other counties, it was over thirty-nine percent. Also, the study revealed between 2003 and 2007, over fifty percent of children under ten years old are obese, whereas children seventeen years old only twenty-six percent are obese (“Child health & healthcare quality in Florida,” 2010). This indicates a trend among young Floridians they are headed toward being obese adults. Therefore, a policy which is inclusive of educating not only students, but parents, teachers, school administrators, principles, and school board members will help to bring obesity to the forefront.

Obesity – It Takes a Village

The state of Florida has made several initiatives to reduce the obesity rate among adults and children. Governor Rick Scott announced last year that September 2013 is designated “Childhood Healthiest Weight Month (D’Urso, 2013).” Right on target is Florida’s goal to bring an entire community together to combat obesity. D’Urso (2013) outlines how Leon County is helping to fight obesity. Several organizations are working in concert to educate and prevent childhood obesity. The Florida Department of Health, The Foundation for Leon County Schools, Working Well (a community organization), Premier Health and Fitness Center, City of Tallahassee-95210: Health by the Numbers, Project F.O.O.D Now, Whole Child Leon, and Capital Region YMCA (D’Urso, 2013) are functioning as agents in a united anti-obesity goal.

The program in Leon County is a model to facilitate an effective obesity program. The goal is to identify local entities that already exist and bring them on board to mirror this type of initiative. These organizations will focus on educating people not only about healthy eating but also about healthy living through exercise and sports. Leon County’s initiative reaches out to parents, educators, children, and the health care community. Health care professionals can lead the way in instituting similar programs in their respective areas. The first step is to make an appointment with the local government such as a city council member. Starting at the local level is a good idea because these politicians are usually more accessible.

The initial step to recommending an anti-obesity policy is to schedule an appointment with a city council member to discuss the issue. The presentation will include statistics on the obesity rates of children; the increased onset of type 2 diabetes affecting children, and the cost of diabetes to the healthcare industry. As a health care professional, the passion for preventing obesity and the overall health of America’s children is very important. Nurses are personally connected to this issue because of overweight family members and relatives that they have been involved with helping to make lifestyle changes. Educating them about food, what and when to eat has been an important part of helping them succeed. Also, the presentation will point out that the cooperation of several agencies working together both private and public is reminiscent of what Governor Scott recommended to help fight the obesity epidemic.

The presentation will also target and name current local agencies such as the YMCA, the local school council, local gyms, and churches that can help facilitate a plan to reach people in a variety of different settings. It will be suggested to the council member that his or her district be the model, perhaps a specific neighborhood could be targeted initially so that success could be measured over a period. The goal is to use the local official as a center of influence, understanding that his or her network of constituents can help facilitate the objective of bringing several organizations together to help fight obesity. Preparation will be made to answer questions about type 2 diabetes. Many understand this to be an adult-onset disease and are sometimes surprised that children are also being diagnosed. Additional information about Leon County and information regarding the function of each organization will be communicated.

Nurses in the health care profession have the advantage of being recognized as authority figures. This is helpful when addressing sensitive matters such as weight loss and lifestyle changes. The importance of educating people about the long-term dangers of obesity such as health complications and limited life span expectancy cannot be overemphasized. Children must learn about food, how it can harm or help them, and that they have the power to make these decisions.

References

Adult obesity rate in Florida could reach 58.6 percent by 2030, according to new study. (2012, September 18). Retrieved from http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2012/?stateid=FL

Child health & healthcare quality in Florida: Focus on childhood obesity. (2010, September). Retrieved from http://www.floridafamilynetwork.com/COPE/ChildhoodObesityStudy.pdf

D’Urso, J. D. (2013, October). Working together towards zero childhood obesity rates in Leon County. Retrieved from http://healthycommunitiesfl.com/community/october-2013/working-together-towards-zero-childhood-obesity-rates-in-leon-county/

Patrick, W. (2013, October 18). Yep, lunch is free for all students in some Florida schools. Retrieved from http://watchdog.org/111333/free-lunch-in-florida/

Spivack, J. S. (2010). Primary care providers' knowledge, practices, and perceived barriers to the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity. Obesity, 1341-1347. doi:10.1038/oby.2009.410

Summary of recommendations. (2010, May). Retrieved from http://www.letsmove.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/TFCO_Table_of_Contents.pdf