Community-Based Approach for Obesity Intervention

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Part A: Recommendation and justification of a PHN approach
Introduction
Obesity has become a major issue of concern in public health worldwide. This is because
of its increasing prevalence of all ages and especially among children and adolescents. The
global attention behind this disorder has come as a realization that obesity increases the risks of
suffering from chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. Generally,
obesity has proved to be a complex metabolic disorder that cannot be treated or managed at its
late stages (1). Therefore, its control and prevention have remained to be a major challenge
despite the increasing awareness about its health-related risks. Lifestyle modification has proved
to be among the easiest ways to control this disorder. However, the approach is faced by a
number of barriers like anti-fat bias, comorbidities limiting the quality of life and physical
exercises, behavioral factors and the lack of access and reimbursement of educational programs.
Further, healthcare systems have not been designed to focus on wellness and health promotion
(7). All these factors combined, weight control and management have become very complicated.
This paper considers the community-based approach as a potential approach in the fight against
obesity disorder.
A community-based approach is a potential approach that enables individuals, families,
and communities to develop healthy behaviors which promote and maintain weight loss.
Basically, this approach will entail social service providers, organizers, and evaluators
enlightening people at the community level. The obesity levels of a community will be assessed
before coming up with sustainable and equitable solutions which can address the problem. Some

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of the interventions to be used in this approach will include classroom curricula, school
environment support, family involvement and fun events (8).
In consideration to classroom curricula, the curricula will be equipped with knowledge on
obesity and the potential hazards to the victim’s future health. Also, the benefits of individual
exercises for weight control will also be addressed in the intervention including the skills and
approaches to maintain body fitness like reduced screen time and having physically active
transportation from time to time (4). This intervention is effective in terms of cost because it
requires curricula. Also, it is acceptable because it not only creates awareness among students
but also equips them with learning skills.
School environment support programs will entail encouraging activities in the school
environment which promotes body exercise. For instance, encouraging the culture of games and
other vigorous activities in schools will help students grow physically fit. Games like rugby in
schools are vigorous and would help students’ loss of weight (5). This can also be supported by a
simple gym to take care of those who might not be interested in games. This intervention will
only entail the purchasing ball games and establishing a simple gym which is cost effective. In
addition, it is an acceptable intervention because games are allowed in schools as part of extra-
curriculum activities. Also, because children from different backgrounds converge, this program
will help promote equity both to children of rich families as well as those from humble
backgrounds.
Family involvement is also a very important approach in the approach. This is because
parents live with their children and can exert a critical influence on them and hence change their
behavior. The intervention entails enlightening parents on the health impacts of obesity and also