Child Obesity Prevention Strategies

The provided document is a collection of resources related to child obesity prevention. It includes articles from reputable sources such as the CDC, NSW Government, and academic journals. The content covers topics like empowering people for healthier living, understanding agency in translating health promotion programs, and key messages from diffusion of innovations theory. The summary provides specific details about the assignment, including its focus on strategies for preventing child obesity, health promotion programs, public health nutrition, and policies to encourage healthy eating and physical activity.

Running head: CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Childhood obesity
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Introduction:
Obesity in children and adolescents is considered a public health problem in both
developed and developing countries, due to the increase in prevalence and the consequences on
the health of the population. Excess weight increases the risk of chronic non- communicable
diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension, in addition to causing
a great health cost (Flegal, Panagiotou & Graubard, 2015). The problem of obesity is now
widely seen in early childhood and this has become a major public health burden both in
Australia and worldwide. More than 42 million children under five are reported to be
overweight and suffering from obesity worldwide. The prevalence of child obesity in Australia is
also high compared to other developing countries as one in every five children in Australia
become overweight by the time they start their schooling. There are about 5% children between
2-4 years who have been classified with obesity and obesity related behaviors are established in
early childhood (Brown et al., 2017). Many programs or initiative implemented by state and
local organization play a role in creating supportive environment to promote healthy living
behaviors in people and prevent obesity (Cdc.gov, 2018). The main purpose of this report is to
evaluate the health promotion activity of ‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’
implemented for preventing obesity in Australia and discuss the activities of the program in
relation to the action areas of the Ottawa Charter.
Need for selected health promotion activity:
‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ was one of the largest childhood
obesity prevention trial that was implemented in Australia for the prevention and treatment of
obesity. The five year obesity prevention trial was implemented in the Hunter New England area

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service from 2006-2011 and the main purpose was to prevent obesity and overweight in children
from 0-15 years of age. It was part of NSW’s ‘Live Life Well’ initiative and influenced services
and programs to prevent obesity (Hnehealth.nsw.gov.au. 2018). The need for such kind of health
promotion activity arose after the acceleration of the rate of obesity in children with time. The
rate of child obesity in Australia increased from 5% in 1995 to 8% in 2007-2008 and the
Australian government also announced the need to develop health promotion activities related to
healthy eating and physical activity guideline (Abs.gov.au. 2009). Changes in lifestyle and
sedentary living have been the main reason for teenagers and youths in Australia to become
obese. Evident also suggest that diet, physical activity and sedentary behavior are modifiable
determinants of obesity and these factors interact in a complex way and contribute to overweight
and obesity (Leech, McNaughton & Timperio, 2014). Hence, ‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life
Program’ was implemented to change eating habits of children and promote physical activity and
create opportunities for children and families to lead a healthy life.
Obesity is a systemic, chronic and multifactorial disease involving genetic susceptibility
and lifestyles and the environment, influenced by various underlying determinants, such as
globalization, culture, economic condition, education, urbanization and the political and social
environments. Obesity can reduce the life expectancy of people in up to 8 years and in 19 years
of life without diseases, according to a study published today in the medical journal. It is
considered that a BMI below 18.5 indicates malnutrition or some health problem, while one over
25 indicates overweight. Above 30 there is mild obesity, and above 40 there is high obesity
(Barbour, 2011). The review of current statistics for obesity in children and youth revealed that
one in every four Australian children were overweight or obesity in 2014-2017 and overweight
and obesity was attributable for 5% of the burden of disease in 2011 (Australian Institute of

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Health and Welfare, 2017). Hence, the need for urgent government and public health agency is
clear from such prevalence rate.
The number of children who are overweight or obese has doubled in Australia currently
and the main cause for this trend are inappropriate eating habits, lack of physical activity and
unhealthy food choices. The importance of health promotion activity to prevent obesity is
recognized because of the rise in health problems due to obesity as well as social problems like
teasing by peers and issues of low-esteem in children. Apart from the burden on the health
system, obesity also increases psychological consequences for children at an early age. Obesity
has an impact on self-esteem of children and results in emotional problem, depression, anxiety. It
ultimately has an impact on quality of life and protective factors of children (Russell-Mayhew et
al., 2012). Therefore, public health policy and health promotion campaign in the area of obesity
are necessary to improve population health. The effectiveness of ‘The Good for Kids, Good for
Life Program’ in modifying lifestyle, eating habits and physical activity level of youths and
children is discussed in the next section.
Potential impact of the selected health promotion activity:
‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ was implemented by the NSW Government
for the people living in Hunter, New England and Lower Middle North Coast of Australia. The
main goal of the program was to reduce the problem of overweight and obesity in children up to
15 years and contribute to the development of appropriate policies and practice to curb rate of
childhood obesity (Hnehealth.nsw.gov.au., 2018). The action implemented to fulfill the goal of
the program is also related to some of the action areas mentioned in the Ottawa Charter for
health promotion. The Ottawa Charter for health promotion developed on 21st November, 1986

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provided five action areas to guide health promotion activities. These included building public
health policy, creating supportive environment, strengthening community actions, developing
personal skills and reorienting health care services towards the prevention of illness and
promotion of health (Gagné & Lapalme, 2017). By reviewing the specific action of the program,
it is understood that the program worked towards building public health policy to prevent obesity
in Australia. For example, developing programs for schools and child care setting that target
policy development, parent engagement and education in the area of nutrition and physical
activity was one of the specific intervention of the ‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’
(Hnehealth.nsw.gov.au., 2018). Building policies related to health issue is an important part of
health promotion as policies and guideline influence dietary guideline, regulates food marketing
and ultimately influence the food choices made by people (Zhang et al., 2014).
Parallel with ‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ goal, several activities were
implemented in Hunter, New England area to promote the health of kids and modify their
lifestyle. For instance, training programs were implemented for child care staffs regarding
healthy menus, lunch boxes and physical activity level in children (Hnehealth.nsw.gov.au.,
2018). This action is related to the Ottawa Charter action area of ‘strengthening community
action’ as the action of educating child care staffs regarding healthy diet and physical activity
paved way for empowering the people interacting with children and strengthening their
participation for the health and well-being of children (Gagné & Lapalme, 2017). By providing
training to health care staffs, the program had the potential to raise awareness of children and
their parents regarding healthy food habits and lifestyle. By this action, the people directly
involved with children such as parents and school staffs could advocate for primary prevention
of obesity (Flynn, 2015). Hence, by adapting the action area of strengthening community action

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as mentioned in the Ottawa Charter, the ‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ enabled
better planning and targeting of resource to prevent childhood obesity in Australia.
The similarity of the action implemented as part of the ‘The Good for Kids, Good for
Life Program’ to the action areas of the Ottawa Charter is also understood from the fact that
collaboration with health care providers were done to identify children at risk of weight problem.
Sports clubs were also given the opportunity to motivate children to participate in physical
activity and learn about healthier menu options (Hnehealth.nsw.gov.au., 2018. This paved way
fulfilling the action area of developing personal skills and reorienting the health service in the
region. By giving special attention to children at high risk of obesity, the needs of the target
population was fulfilled. It resulted in development of healthy eating guideline. The program
also had the potential to reorient health services as by identifying vulnerable people, new system
to help target group know about healthy weight, nutrition and physical activity became possible
(Kumar & Preetha, 2012). In low income parents, lack of nutrition knowledge among parents
also contribute to overweight and obesity related problem and community based effort to create
awareness about healthy diet promote obesity prevention (Wintrup, 2010). In this way, the
program had the potential to control all risk factors that contribute to obesity during childhood.
Implementation of selected health promotion activity:
The manner in which any healthy promotion activity is implemented determines the
success of the program in reducing health issue of concern to public health. ‘The Good for Kids,
Good for Life Program’ worked by involving health care providers, school staffs, child care
services and support staffs in care. To deliver primary prevention services related to obesity, the
programs first prioritized building the capacity of seven community settings such as primary

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schools, child care services, general practitioners, nurse practitioners, Junior Community Sports
Club, Community Service Organisation, Aboriginal Health Service Staff and the HNE health
services (Health.nsw.gov.au. 2018). By following this approach during the implementation phase
of the program, the Ottawa Charters principle of developing personal skill was fulfilled. Capacity
building is an important aspect of health promotion activities as it promotes advocacy and
increase involvement of organizations, communities or system in preventive efforts. Other
benefits of working across different community sector for realization of health promotion goal
are such actions has the potential to empower organization and strengthen community action to
empower sustainable health behavior in the community. The manner in which partnership is
created between different agencies determines the success of any health promotion activity
(Todd et al., 2017).
To favor implementation of ‘The Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ in target
setting, the goals and action of the plan were translated at the state and regional level. By
adapting the capacity building approach, the health promotion activity informed implementation
of the National Preventive Partnership Health Children Initiative. At the regional level, the gaols
of the programs has been translated to action by development of innovative child obesity
prevention services at school and promoting development of new services like smoking cessation
services in clinical care setting (Health.nsw.gov.au., 2018). It is a challenging process to translate
and disseminate health promotion intervention in real setting, however when competing priorities
are addressed and agencies are involved in the process, the process of translating the goals in real
setting becomes easier (Page-Reeves et al., 2015). From the review of the process by which the
program is implemented, it can be concluded community participation and capacity building is
an essential tenet for empowering population group to change health behavior and persists with

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healthy habits. Apart from the implementation process, the success or failure of ‘The Good for
Kids, Good for Life Program’ is also understood from the outcome of the program and its
effectiveness in reducing the rate of overweight or obese children in Australia.
Effectiveness of the selected health promotion activity:
Health promotion campaigns develop specific goals after assessment of health risk and
prioritization of health needs of population group and the effectiveness of the implementation
process is understood from improvement in health outcome of specific group. In case of five year
prvenetion trial the ‘Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ implemented in Australia, the
effectiveness of the trial is understood from the review of figures on participation of community
agencies, improvement in healthy eating and physical activity behaviors of children and weight
status of the target group at the start and end of the program. The review of the outcome revealed
that by adapting the capacity building approach, about 80% of the community settings were
engaged in the program. High level of engagement of Hunter New England schools and child
care services in the obesity prevention program were seen compared to rest of the state
(Health.nsw.gov.au, 2018). Considering such high rate of participation, it is evident the impact
on health behavior of children would be huge too. Jones et al. (2015) also confirmed that after
the implementation of the ‘Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’, the number of services
implementing written nutrition and physical activity policy increased. Hence, the programs
fulfilled its vision of developing more policies in the area of childhood obesity prevention. The
programs improved provision for adult guided activities to physical activity and healthy diet for
children.

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The most vital outcome measure for the success of the ‘Good for Kids, Good for Life
Program’ was the improvement in prevalence rate for overweight and obesity and improvement
in healthy behavior of Australian children. The improvement in health activity behavior was
assessed by the rate of consumption of soft drinks, water, fruits and vegetable intake in children,
whereas the improvement in physical activity behavior was measured by the time spent inn
children activity. In all these parameters, positive improvement were seen in children in the year
2010 compared to 2010. In addition, while calculation the reduction in overweight and obesity
for Hunter New England children, it was found that the prevalence rate of obesity reduced by 1%
every year and for girls, the reduction in prevalence rate was 7.4% (Health.nsw.gov.au, 2018).
This result suggests that statistically significant improvement in health behavior were found.
From this result, it can be concluded that ‘Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ was successful
in getting many positive outcome. By employing community agencies, the programs
strengthened capacity for healthy eating and physical activity. Secondly, the program was
effective in influencing service delivery both locally and nationally and getting positive changes
in number of obesity related behavior too. The program is also renowned for the developing
succession of state plans and policies to reduce child obesity and obesity related determinants.
Conclusion:
The report looked at the issue of increasing prevalence of childhood obesity in Australia.
Since, obesity is an issue that increases the risk of chronic disease, mental health consequence
and social issues for children and youth in the community, evaluating the role of health
promotion activity to address the issue for important. The report evaluated the ‘Good for Kids,
Good for Life Program’ to understand how the campaign followed the actions areas of the
Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and took appropriate steps to reduce the steep rise in

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prevalence of overweight and obesity among Australian children. After the critical review of the
goals, implementation process and outcomes of the program, it can be concluded that that the
‘Good for Kids, Good for Life Program’ was an innovative approach to reduce obesity in Hunter
New England region and build evidence for framing more policies to prevent obesity. By taking
multi-setting community building approach, it was successful in addressing behavioral
determinant of childhood obesity and improving health behavior of children. In future, health
promotion activities should focus on capacity building to empower community and strengthen
their participation in preventive work.

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References:
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