Designing an Obesity Prevention Action Plan for Your Community

Assessment Task 3 (AT3) written
assignment: Designing an obesity
prevention action plan for your
community: Applying Best
Practice Principles (BPPs)

Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Community engagement..................................................................................................................3
Program design and evaluation........................................................................................................4
Goal of the program design..........................................................................................................4
Best Practice Principles: program strategies and process evaluation methods............................5
Discussion and justification of the strategies...............................................................................5
Discussion and justification of the evaluation methods...............................................................6
Sustainability and governance.........................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................7
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................9

Background
Obesity is a public health issue globally as around 1.9 billion adults come under either the
category of overweight or obese (1). The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Australia is a
major public health concern (2). Considering the data from Australia, it is found in the National
Health Survey 2014-15 that 36% of adults in Australia are overweight and 28% are obese. For
children, it was found that children between 5 and 17yrs, 20% were overweight and 7% were
obese which is alarming for this population (3). The causes of obesity are numerous ranging
from genetic disposition to physical inactivity, which can be responsible for the condition singly,
or in combination. In Australia specifically, unhealthy food and nutrition, less physical activity
and the increase of the obesogenic environment are regarded as chief contributor to this health
issue (4). The City of Melton is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in western side of
Melbourne's rural–urban fringe. In the City of Melton, 16.9% adolescents were eating the
minimum recommended serves of fruit and vegetables each day in 2009 which was lower than
the proportion reported across Western Metropolitan Region (18.3%). Also. Residents of Melton
considerably have more chances of being obese. This report focuses on the action plan to reduce
the consumption of high calorific food item among the children between 5 and 17 years in the
City of Melton.
Community engagement
A collaborated effort from the State Government, State Education department and the City
Councils of the City of Melton is required either update previous policies or make new policies
to remove high caloric temptation from children and adolescent. Subsidies on purchase of
healthy food items such as fruits and vegetables in the form of discounts, vouchers or coupons

can be planned (5). Further, the fast food serving settings can be zoned through local council
bylaws (6). Guidelines can be passed to ban the advertisement of unhealthy food at outdoor sites.
Strict policies against incorrect labeling of calorie values or false claims over the junk food items
should also be made. Children between 5 and 16 are school-going so school canteen policies can
be updated to promote selling of healthy food items at reasonable price and lower the availability
of high calorific value products (7). Another collaborative work is required from the school
authorties of the City of Melton with the teachers, students and parents to plan and conduct
nutrition awareness curriculum sessions, meetings and workshops. Modules covering the health
impacts of high calorie consumption can be included in the school curriculum. In addition,
school newsletter articles focused on discouraging consumption of high calorie food and
adopting healthy food habits targeted at adolescence and parents can also be taken up. It can
increase efforts from parents as well as children’s own side to avoid fast food. Further, it should
be ensured that a professional development orientation is provided to the teachers, canteen
supervisors and sports coaches so that the new policies are implemented efficiently. The
community of the City of Melton can act to develop community level social media campaign
which points out towards the short-term and long-term adverse effects of consuming high calorie
food items so that its temptation among children between 5 and 16 years can be reduced.
Program design and evaluation
Goal of the program design
Goal of this obesity prevention initiative is to prevent or reduce the incidence of obesity by
reducing calorie temptation among children between 5 and 17 years in the City of Melton.
Specifically, the objective is to reduce the consumption of junk food by 40% and to increase the