Obesity Amongst the Adult Population in NZ

New Zealand faces challenges in its healthcare system, with nutrition being a public issue of concern. Obesity is prevalent and needs to be addressed through an appropriate intervention program. The program should involve a nationwide campaign targeting individuals, families, and communities. The success of the program depends on proper implementation and evaluation. Desklib offers study material with solved assignments, essays, dissertations, and more.

OBESITY AMONGST THE
ADULT POPULATION IN NZ
Name
Institution

Introduction
 New Zealand is a country that is trying to
strengthen its healthcare system
 Despite making commendable efforts, NZ
still faces numerous challenges in its
healthcare
 Nutrition is one of the public issues of
concern
 Nutrition has causes diseases like obesity
 High prevalence of obesity can be
addressed by adopting and fully-
implementing an appropriate intervention

Health Issues in New
Zealand
 NZ is like any other country that has health
problems (Harris, Tobias, Jeffreys,
Waldegrave, Karlsen & Nazroo, 2006).
 Nutrition still remain a challenge in the
country
 Poor eating culture has engulfed the New
Zealanders
 Poor nutrition has caused diseases like
obesity
 Obesity has become quite prevalent and
must be addressed

Task I: Obesity
 Obesity is having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of
25 and above (Kotsis, Tsioufis, Antza,
Seravalle, Coca, Sierra & Redon, 2018).
 Obesity is a lifestyle disease caused by poor
diet-eating of sugary foods
 Obesity also caused by physical inactivity
 Such lead to accumulation of excess fats in
the body (Callahan, 2013).
 Everyone in NZ is susceptible to obesity
 Obesity is deadly and must be mitigated
(Vartanian & Smyth, 2013).

Prevalence of Adulthood
Obesity in NZ
 NZ is in the verge of adulthood obesity-both
male and female adults at risk of the disease
 The prevalence is so high-NZ is third fattest
nation in the world after USA, and Mexico
 In 2017, 32% of the adult NZ population was
obese (Ministry of Health, 2018).
 Obesity also affects the children
 During the same period, 12% of the children
were obese (Ministry of Health, 2018).

Why Intervention
 Obesity is a nutrition-related disease that needs an
immediate intervention
 It is a lifestyle disease that can be mitigated by
adopting a lifestyle change (Sallis, Owen, & Fisher,
2015).
 The disease must be eradicated because it is can
cause other deadly illnesses like diabetes, heart
attack, cancer, stroke, High Blood Pressure, asthma,
gout, and Gallbladder disease and gallstones (Kotsis,
Tsioufis, Antza, Seravalle, Coca, Sierra & Redon,
2018).
 Obesity is, therefore, deadly because it causes high
mortality rates

Task II: Nutrition Awareness
Campaign Program
 As already hinted, obesity is a lifestyle disease
(Kotsis, Tsioufis, Antza, Seravalle, Coca, Sierra &
Redon, 2018).
 The disease can be disastrous if not addressed
(Malik, Willett & Hu, 2013).
 A campaign program should be rolled-out
 The campaign should be nationwide
 The campaign should target the kids, youth,
adults, and elderly populations
 The campaign should focus on individuals,
families, and communities (Gifford, Cvitanovic,
Boulton & Batten, 2017).

Success History of the
Campaign Program
 Obesity awareness campaign is not new
 It has been successfully done in many countries
 The USA has done the campaign before (Werder,
2007).
 The campaign has been done in Germany too
(Powell & Gard, 2015).
 Obesity campaign has also been rolled-out in
Australia (Grunseit, O’Hara, Chau, Briggs &
Bauman, 2015).
 So, NZ can try it as well, execute is properly and
succeed in its war against adulthood obesity

Obesity Awareness Campaign
Program
 The public should be taught about the
following issues regarding the
management of obesity:
 Dangers of unhealthy diet
 All the foods that cause obesity
 How to eat a balanced diet and adopt a
healthy eating culture (Cook, Purdie-Vaughns,
Meyer & Busch, 2014).
 Benefits of healthy foods and eating culture
 How to start and maintain a healthy eating
culture

Obesity Awareness Campaign
Program
 The campaign program to be done as
follows
 All the public healthcare stakeholders to be
involved
 Mass media to be used for the campaign-
radio, television, video, posters, online media
 Campaign to be directed to entire
population through these mass media
(Brownson, Baker, Deshpande, &
Gillespie, 2017).
 All available forms of media accessible should
be used

Task III: Overview of Steps
 The campaign will involve the
contribution of the following
stakeholders:
 The government of New Zealand
 The Ministry of Health (Cook, Purdie-Vaughns,
Meyer & Busch, 2014).
 Public healthcare professionals
 Dietarians
 Nurses
 Physicians
 Community Health Workers

Roles of Government in the
Program
 The government of NZ , through the
Ministry of Health will:
 Avail the required financial resources
 Provide the personnel to be in charge of the
program
 Identify the areas and populations to be
educated
 Supervise the drafting of the campaign
content
 Supervise the implementation of the program
 Evaluate the program to determine its
progress and overall success (Cook, Purdie-
Vaughns, Meyer & Busch, 2014).

Steps involved in the
Intervention
 Planning Process:
 Identification of the healthcare issue through
research (Brownson, Baker, Deshpande &
Gillespie, 2017).
 Identification and involvement of the
stakeholders
 Planning process and drafting of the campaign
program
 Selection of the media platforms-print media,
broadcast media, and social media (electronic
media) (Schiavo, 2013).

…Steps involved in the
Intervention
 Implementation Process
 The implementation done by airing the
campaign in the radio
 The campaign to be rolled-out on the
television (TV)
 Posters and bill boards will be placed on
strategic locations
 Social media campaign will also be
implemented (Mellon, Hickey, Doyle, Dolan &
Williams, 2014).
Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube etc

Steps involved in the
Intervention
 Evaluation
 The program to be evaluated by conducting a
preliminary and summative assessments
 Continuous evaluation to be done throughout
the program to determine the success in its
implementation process (Lupton, 2015).
 Summative evaluation to be done at the end
of the program to determine its overall
success

Task IV: Barriers
 Organizational Barriers
 Lack of enough personnel to spearhead the
program
 Poor planning and coordination of the
activities to be done during the program
 Poor supervision of the program
 Inadequate finances (Drummond, Sculpher,
Claxton, Stoddart & Torrance, 2015).

Barriers
 Individual Barriers
 Lack of preparedness by the personnel
 Incompetence of the personnel
 Inadequate time to complete all the planned
activities (Massett, Dilts, Bailey, Berktold, Ledsky,
Atkinson & Silver, 2017)
 Lack of involvement of all the stakeholders
 Inaccessibility to certain media platforms used
(Freeman, Potente, Rock & McIver, 2015).
 Resistance and poor reception of the program by
the public
 Language barrier might hinder the implementation

Remedial Measures
 The organizational barriers can be
addressed by:
 Availing enough money for the program
 Active involvement of all the stakeholders
(Cook, Purdie-Vaughns, Meyer & Busch, 2014).
 Create enough time to plan and implement all
the activities (Schiavo, 2013).
 Provide enough and highly-trained staff to roll-
out the program
 Supervise each and every activity to ensure
that they are done as planned

…Remedial Measures
 Individual Barriers
 Train all the staff on how to discharge their mandate
during the campaign
 Give room for each of the concerned stakeholders to
participate in the program to avoid any unnecessary
resistance (Gifford, Cvitanovic, Boulton & Batten, 2017).
 Create enough time to enable the program to go through
as planned (Roberto, Swinburn, Hawkes, Huang, Costa,
Ashe & Brownell, 2015).
 Ensure that there is flexibility in the issues to do with
media choice and mode of instruction (Massett, Dilts,
Bailey, Berktold, Ledsky, Atkinson & Silver, 2017).
 Appropriate language that accommodates all to be used

Task V: Monitoring of the
Success of the Program
 The program will have its specifically-
outlined short and long-term goals
 Each of the goals must be accomplished
 The success depends on a proper
implementation (Simmons, Kumar, Crook
& Rush, 2017).
 The success can be determined by
evaluating the progress (Gifford,
Cvitanovic, Boulton & Batten, 2017).

Evaluation of the
Implementation
 The implementation process will be
evaluated:
 Conducting a continuous assessment
(Massett, Dilts, Bailey, Berktold, Ledsky,
Atkinson & Silver, 2017).
 Assess each and every activity step by step
 Compare accomplishment with goals
 Come up with an assessment plan headed by
the supervisor (Montano & Kasprzyk, 2015).
 Involve the team in the assessment process

Evaluation of the Success of the
Program
 Overall evaluation of the program to be
done:
 At the very end of the program
 All the activities assessed to determine the
extent to which they are achieved (Gifford,
Cvitanovic, Boulton & Batten, 2017).
 Achievement compared to the pre-set goals
 Overall assessment to be done by an objective
and focused team (Simmons, Kumar, Crook &
Rush, 2017).
 A report has to be written after the
assessment process to help in making the
final decisions

Conclusion
 Nutrition has been an issue of concern in
the country
 Obesity is one of the nutrition-related
diseases affecting people (Malik, Willett &
Hu, 2013).
 Obesity is a lifestyle disease that can be
mitigated by adopting the right behavior
change
 The intervention program should be
properly implemented to ensure that it is
a success (Sallis, Owen & Fisher, 2015).

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