Obesity Prevention and Health Promotion

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION
OBESITY PREVENETION AND HEALTH PROMOTION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1HEALTH PROMOTION
Introduction:
According to Foundation (2019), obesity can be defines as a complex disorder
characterized by the accumulation of excessive fat within the body. Obesity is not restricted to a
cosmetic concern but increases the risk of developing multiple health problems such as Diabetes,
Hypertension and Cardiovascular disorders. As mentioned by the World Health Organization
(2019), from among the English-speaking nations, Australia has the third highest prevalence of
overweight and obese adults. It has also been estimated that obesity in Australia is a serious
concern and is emerging as an epidemic with an increasing frequency. In addition to this,
research studies have predicted that the prevalence of obesity in Australia has almost doubled
since the last decade. Obesity is caused by the interplay of genetic, hormonal and behavioral
influences on the body weight of individuals (Frood et al., 2013). An individual is said to turn
obese only when the intake of calories exceeds the amount of calorie burnt through rigorous
exercise or other activities of daily living. According to Buchmueller and Johar (2015), the major
reasons that lead to obesity include unhealthy diet and eating habits, lack of physical activity and
a sedentary lifestyle.
According to a report published by Grima and Dixon (2013), six million Australians aged
18 and above were reported to be overweight with the Basal Metabolism Index (BMI) being in
between 25.0kg/m2 to 29.9kg/m2. The recorded prevalence accounted for a total of 36% of the
Australian adults (Grima & Dixon, 2013; Lehnert et al., 2013). Further, 3.5 million Australian
men aged 18 and above were reported to be overweight against 2.5 million Australian women
belonging to the similar age group (Tanamas, 2013). Therefore, this paper intends to develop a
health promotion program for the prevention of obesity and promotion of healthy living among
obese adults.

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Outline of the plan:
Statistical evidence suggests that the prevalence of obesity in Victoria is equivalent to
63.3% (Tanamas, 2013). Also, the prevalence has been reported to be higher in adults aged 18
years and above. Therefore, the target audience for the health promotion program would be
individuals aged between 18 to 25 years (Buchmueller & Johar, 2015). Individuals belonging to
the targeted age group are mostly students. Therefore, the health promotion program would be
conducted at the University of Victoria. The promotion program would take place inside the
university campus and would extend for 6 weeks. Prior to the commencement of the program,
approval would be obtained from the concerned university authorities. After obtaining the
approval, the details about the promotion program would be published in the official website of
the university and circulated on social media so as to draw the attention of the students.
Interested students would be requested to mail their personal details to the registration desk. The
registration for the first batch would be closed after obtaining 10 responses and the students
would then be contacted personally through email to attend the program. The program would
typically comprise of assisting the students with weight loss through work out sessions, diet
plans (Dietz et al., 2015). For students who are morbidly obese, the program would offer
information about bariatric surgery and other medical assistance that could help in losing weight
(Williams et al., 2015). In addition to this, the program would also disseminate awareness among
the students about the health related risk factors that are triggered by obesity. After the
completion of the program, the participants would be required to fill out a survey feedback form.
The responses would be analyzed to determine the success of the program. Also, on the day of
commencement, the body weight and the BMI of the participants would be documented and the
participants would be asked to document their desired ‘ideal weight’. On the day of completion

3HEALTH PROMOTION
of the program, the body weight and BMI would again be calculated and compared to the ‘ideal
weight’ mentioned by the participant on the first day to analyze the effectiveness of the program.
Implementation using the PDSA cycle:
According to Donnelly and Kirk (2015), the PDSA cycle or the Plan-Do-Act cycle is an
integral improvement model that helps in rendering continuous quality improvement during the
process of implementing a health promotion program. On setting the aim and objectives of the
program and after finalizing the membership committee, it is important to develop improvement
strategies so as to ensure that whether or not the planned change could bring out a positive effect.
The next step comprises of testing the outcome of the implemented strategies. The PDSA cycle
therefore covers the process of planning a change, implementing the change, observing the
results and then reflecting upon the process (Leis & Shojania, 2017).
In this section the implementation of the obesity program would be mentioned in detail in
compliance with the PDSA framework.
Step 1: Plan:
This stage would comprise of planning the health promotion program and selecting the
appropriate data collection plan for collecting the data. In this context, it should be noted that the
planning stage would extend over two phases. The first phase would comprise of finalizing the
target population and the venue where the health promotion program was to be conducted. The
second stage would comprise of developing an outline of the program and planning the activities
that would be covered in the program. In addition to this, the body weight and the BMI would be
considered as the parameters for data collection. Three teams would be created with 7 members
in total. The first team would comprise of two student volunteers who would be responsible for