Go4Fun Health Program for Childhood Obesity in NSW

The assignment discusses childhood obesity as a public health concern and the Go4Fun health program developed by NSW to combat it. It covers the need for the program, its implementation, potential impact, and effectiveness. The program is free for overweight children aged 7-13 years and parents to participate. It is a 10-week program on eating habits, fitness, and confidence. The program has been found to produce positive results, including a decrease in body mass index, sedentary activities, and an increase in physical activity and knowledge of food and nutrition.

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Introduction
In 21st century childhood obesity is the major public health concern. It is the growing
concern for urban settings in the low and middle income countries. As reported by “World
Health organisation” (WHO) in 2016, the children above five years with obesity comprise of 4.1
million (World Health Organization, 2018). Overweight and obese children are highly likely to
stay overweight in adulthood and develop the non-communicable diseases as a consequence. In
Australia an estimated 20-25% of children are overweight. A quarter of them are observed to be
obese. The number of children with obesity is even higher in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander communities (Healthdirect.gov.au, 2018). In NSW one in five children of school age are
considered overweight or obese (Daniel & Anagnostellis, 2018). Excess weight and obesity in
childhood are recognised to be the major risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular
disease in adulthood. It is also the risk factor for musculoskeletal conditions and cancer. The
ability to manage the chronic conditions in adulthood decreases by the increasing weight in
childhood. Childhood obesity is also associated with psychological health issues (Sahoo et al.,
2015). It implies for the parents to set right example for their children during early life years.
The assignment deals with the healthy lifestyle program for kids named “Go4Fun” developed for
NSW kids. The assignment discusses the need of the program, implementation and potential
impact of the program and its effectiveness.
Childhood obesity and Go4Fun health program
In NSW one in one in five children are overweight and are vulnerable to cardiovascular
disease and type 2 diabetes. Childhood obesity is also associated with psychological health issues

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such as low self esteem and poor self identity. These children are susceptible to obesity in
adulthood upto 20-25% (Aihw.gov.au, 2016). Weight gain and obesity occurs with intake of
high calorie diet and energy drinks. This behaviour exceeds the energy expenditure from the
metabolic process and the physical activity. The cause of the obesity among children attributes to
mainly three factors. It includes diet, active travel and physical activity. Obese children are noted
with physically inactive behaviours such as playing video games, watching television and poor
knowledge of nutrition (Sahoo et al., 2015). This issue calls for immediate action and the
rationale can be explained by the social learning theory proposed by Bandura. According to this
theory children and adults; earn from one another through observation, and modelling. It greatly
influences the behaviours and cognitive aspects of people encompassing memory, attention and
motivation (Cherry, 2011). If the childhood obesity is not addressed, more children in long run
would observe and learn sedentary activities from the obese children. It will eventually increase
the burden of chronic diseases and health care cost. It means that the obesity not only has
negative impact on children health but also on the entire nation (Sahoo et al., 2015). It demands
the parents to take preventive actions to protect the children in early life years. It is because
obesity involves the economic and social impact on families. However, parents are found to have
poor awareness of food and nutrition and its role in child development (Park, Falconer, Viner &
Kinra, 2012). This calls for developing effective health promotion program for obese children
and for supporting their parents. To address this issue, the Go4Fun health program was launched
in 2011 for overweight children in NSW (Nsw.gov.au, 2018).

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Potential impact of Go4Fun on health program
The program is implemented with short term and long term goals. The short term
benefits of the program include improved eating habits, physical activity and decrease in
sedentary behaviours and BMI. The long term benefits include increase in self esteem, improved
concentration, and behaviours, sporting skills and fitness. The children also are befitted by the
improved teamwork and communication skills (Go4Fun, 2018). It is evident that the program is
so designed that it has potential for overall positive impact on the physical, social, emotional and
psychological well being.
The program has the potential to evoke positive health outcomes as it ensures the
fundamental health resources and conditions needed for good health as mentioned by the Ottawa
Charter of health promotion. Three of the conditions met by the program include education,
food and social justice and equity (Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 2018). Health
promotion method identified in the Ottawa Charter contains five priority areas. It includes
building the health public policy, creating the supporting environment, strengthening the
community actions, develop personal skills, and reorient health services and moving into the
future. The Go4Fun program for obese children has the potential to address four of these priority
areas mentioned above. The program creates supportive environment, strengthen the community
actions, develop personal skills and help people move into the future.
The health promotion program counteracts the pressure towards harmful factors such as
bad nutrition, low self esteem and physical inactivity. This program helps reduce the risk of
chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, depression, and subsequent mortality by eating
healthy food. In this way the program reduces the inequalities in the health produced by the

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practices of urban and upper class society. The program enables the parents to create supportive
environment for the children and direct them towards healthy lifestyle. The program also fosters
the self help and social support system thereby strengthening the community actions. Greater
public participation leads to increase access of health information and learning opportunities for
children. It leads to greater collaboration with the primary health centres (Hardy et al., 2015).
Further, the program is also developing the personal skills. The Go4Fun program educates and
prepares children in school setting, home and community settings to cope
up with chronic illness and injuries. The parents and children may learn after school cooking
skills, especially those from disadvantaged communities (Burrows, Lucas, Morgan, Bray &
Collins 2015). The parents participating in the health program are equal partners in every phase
of health promotion together with children. Therefore, they can keep themselves healthy and
their children. They can move into future where they will have less health complications. As
parents and children are recognising their health, it acts as social investment. It helps them
address overall ecological issues of living ways (Innes-hughes, Khanal, Lukeis & Rissel, 2016).
Implementation of the selected health promotion
The program is free for overweight children aged 7-13 years and parents to participate.
It is the 10 week program on eating habits, fitness and confidence. The premiere priority of the
program is to reduce the rate of overweight and obesity by 5% in children by 2025 (Nsw.gov.au,
2018).
The program is initiated by the health professionals, who are qualified to give health and
fitness training. The program is started after the school hours and runs parallel with the school
terms. The qualified health professionals teach children about health eating habits through fun

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activities and games. If the parents do not demonstrate the healthy lifestyle the children are less
likely to have knowledge on healthy food choices and active lifestyle. Therefore, the program
supports the family members to adopt the healthy lifestyle. The physical trainers help children in
engaging in various physical activities for set amount of hours. Throughout this period the
trainers bolster the self esteem of the children. Parents are inspired to join the health journey of
their children. The program also considers the cultural factors to support the Aboriginal children.
This program was also known as Aboriginal Go4Fun (Nsw.gov.au, 2018).
The program follows the principle of the Ottawa charter according to which the health
promotion should enable the people to increase their control over health and improvement.
According to Ottawa charter the three basic strategies of the health promotion program are
advocate, enable and mediate. It means that the health promotion program should advocate the
people for health as it is an important dimension of quality of life. Health is the major resource
for the economic, social, and personal development. According to Ottawa Charter, health
promotion program should enable all people to achieve their health potential to their fullest. In
this regard both men and women should be given equal opportunities to reduce difference in the
current health status. Further, the health promotion program must involve coordinated action by
the health, social, economic and government sector as well as media, voluntary organisations
(Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 2018).
Go4Fun follows the three strategies mentioned in the Ottawa Charter and it is evident
from the health advocacy to parents of overweight children to lead a healthy lifestyle. With the
help of these programs the children are advocated to get active each day for 60 minutes. It may
include the vigorous activities that will make children huff and puff. Parents and children are

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advocated to drink water to quench thirst over the flavoured and sweetened drinks. They are
further advocated to consume more fruits and vegetables. The participants of the program are
recommended to intake the 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegies each day and avoid eating the
fat rich diets and high calorie food. They are supported and educated to choose healthier
alternatives instead of eating snacks. Children are advocated to choose alternate instead of
watching TV and playing video games (Go4fun.com.au, 2018). The program involves the health
and social care sector as well as government bodies. Health professionals have major role to play
here. It incorporates everyone irrespective of culture, ethnicity, gender, age and language. It also
considers the ethical barriers for effective health promotion. The program is executed under the
guidance of well trained health professionals (dieticians, and others) and sports personal. The
organisations that operate for Go4Fun in accordance with the principles of the charter include
local governments, community health services, some hospitals, and non-governmental
organisations. In conclusion it follows the three strategies of health promotion by Ottawa charter.
Effectiveness of the selected health promotion activity
The program has been found to produce positive results. According to Go4Fun (2018) on
average the children aged 7-13 in NSW demonstrated decrease in body mass index significantly,
which is 0.6kg/m². The children showed decrease in the sedentary activities. The inactive hours
spent per week by the children decreased by 3.4 hours. A drop in waste circumferences was
noted (17 cm) among these children after participating in the program. Children were found to
participate in physical activities for more number of hours. The duration of physical activities
performed, increased by 3.8 hours per week. Children demonstrated a greater knowledge of food
and nutrition. There was an overall increase in fitness and self esteem. These results clearly

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indicate the effectiveness of the program. It also indicates the adherence to the program
guidelines and compliance among the overweight children and parents.
The program has been observed to be successful as it involved people from all walks of
life as members of families and communities. The program showed inclusion of all social and
professional groups. Health professionals were responsible for mediating
between differing interests in society for health pursuits. The program was successful as per
Welsby et al. (2014) as it designed strategies that were tailored to the local needs. It did take into
account different social, culture and economic systems. As per the randomised control trials,
cohort studies, meta-analysis, positive lifestyle changes improve emotion regulation and
psychological health of children (Olaiya, Soetan, & Esan, 2016). Fruits and vegetable
consumption enhances immune system and disease fighting ability (Magrone & Jirillo, 2015).
This data indicates the success of the program.
Conclusion
The assignment discusses the health issue childhood obesity and the health promotion
program developed by NSW called Go4Fun. The obesity is the public health concern as it is
unevenly distributed. It calls for treatment that is equitable. This program however helps parents
and children to lead healthy lifestyle. Children can learn to make healthy food choices
throughout the lifestyle and learn the importance of physical activity. The program involves
people from different sectors such as health, economic, and social sectors. Therefore, the target
population receives valuable heath related information that can help prevent risk factors for
chronic illnesses. Go4Fun program has been successful in promoting the physical, social,
emotional health of the children. This has overall positive impact not only for the obese children

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and their family but also the entire nation. When working with Aboriginal communities and
disadvantages classes of society, the program does consider the language, economic, social and
cultural determinates to ensure success of the program. The program ensures the community
strength as it enables inclusion of the policy makers, health practioners, and fitness trainers.
Conclusively, the program has been effective in reducing childhood obesity rates through promotion
of healthy lifestyles.

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References
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obese-or-overweight/8523762

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