Community-based Health Promotion Against Obesity

Running head: COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 1
Community Based Health Promotion Against Obesity
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Author Note

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 2
Part 1
The primary purpose of the Community based program is to create a co-operative and
cordial environment which will encourage all the citizens to equally participate and
collaborate for improving the health outcomes and overall quality of life. The approach is
directed towards the whole population in a given community rather than to specific high risk
individuals. The advantages of such program being better accessibility of health service for
every individual, it helps in gaining insights into the social context of any health issue, it
facilitates the relationship and mutual understanding between the cosumer and the
healthservice providers and interaction with other healthcare professionals for improving the
quality of health care(Nickel & von dem Knesebeck, 2019).. Laverack’s community-based
intervention ladder provides a framework and guideline for the ranging from community
readiness and their participation and engagement while addressing a particular health issue to
organizational development and capacity building; collaborative approach and empowerment
of the community. Obesity is a serious health issue worldwide, the easy avaibility of fast
foods has lured the public to consume unhealthy and fat-containing oily foods, modernization
and advancement in technology has led to reduced physical activity and exercise and
encouraged living a sedentary life, which has increased the risk of getting obesed. The health
issue regarding obesity can be addressed considering the ladder of community based
intervention program proposed by Laverack(Gómez et al, 2018). The first approach should be
involved with the readiness and willingness of the public in accepting and addressing the
issue of obesity and participate in implementing effective strategies and programs to
overcome the same. This is usually done by conducting a series of questionnares and
interview sessions asking the people what heath issue they have faced, and how they want to
obercome those to sustain a healthy living. The participation of the community facilates
interaction and exchange of ideas and thoughts with each other. The community participation

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 3
begins with informing the public about the adverse effects and health complexities associated
with obesity through effective communication. Engagement also facilitates community
capacities, improve competency and skill which enables the people to make decision and
implement necessary actions by themselves. Meetings or seminars can be arranged for the
peoples to participate and discuss on the issue of obesity, express their individual views and
opinions which will further help in planning of preventive measures and actions. Partnership
and collaboration with each other is very crucial in the successful implementation of a
community based health program(Christensen et al, 2019). The community should be
dedicated and organized towards their common goal through mutual decision making and
problem soving which is based on their self determination. A well-developed community
requires proper education, training and technical support which helps in improvement of the
quality of life. The community capacity provides a systemic approach for building the
different assests and attributes of the community such as individual participation, leadership,
avaibility of sufficient resources, building a proper organizational structure and program
management. Through community action the people address issue of obesity and make
efforts to reduce its effects. This can be done by encouraging the people to opt for healthy
and balance diet, regular physical exercise, reducing intake of high calorie foods. Community
empowerment provides the community with increased control over their decisions and
resources which influence their life. For a community participation and empowerment to be
successful, a long term strategy should be developed, along with proper assessment of the
needs and assets, collaborating with each other for the exchange of ideas and experience,
implementing an action plan and lastly, monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes(South et
al, 2019).

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 4
Part 2
Sustainable development of any community can be achieved by the combined
participation of the community members, community empowerment and capacity building.
Capacity building helps in addressing the needs and requirements of the community,
undertaking community based action research and supporting the members of the community.
Community empowerment is dependent on the three domains: community participation,
community capacity and community development. Also, there are few other domains which
is involved in improved community empowerment such as mobilization of resources,
leadership, proper organizational structure, increased ability to assess health problems,
collaboration with other organizations and a controlled program management(Sims-Gould et
al, 2019). Participation of people is one of the basic criteria for community empowerment,
where the individual are responsible for assessing their health needs and issues and create
treatment plan accordingly. Leadership is required for ensuring proper organization within
the group. A local leader helps in providing a direction to the program and resoves any
conflicts that arises owing to clash of opinions among the participants. Apart from these, they
are also involved in analysing the data and evaluation of the initiatives taken by the
community through efficient decision making and problem solving skills(Schneider,
Steinman & Dicocco, 2019).. Buiding a good organizational structure helps the community
members to interact and communicate efficiently. The community members should be able to
identify and assess the health problems and implement strategies for resoving them.
Community empowerment helps to improve mobilization of the resources and also strengthen
links to other organizations through parternship and collaboration, which enhances the
interdependency among the community members and promotes inter-organizational and
interpersonal relationship(Leppin et al, 2018). Community empowerment helps in creating an
equitable relationship with the external agents which provides support for the community and