Obesity Prevention in Young Adults: Strategies and Evaluation

This paper focuses on the obesity concern of young adults based in the Greater city of Dandenong. Strategies include community engagement, organizational and individual interventions, and evaluation methods. The goal is to decrease fast food consumption by 30% and alcohol behavior by 20% in 25 to 40-year-olds within 3 years.

Running head: OBESITY PREVENTION
OBESITY PREVENTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Background
This paper will focus on the obesity concern of young adults based at the Greater city of
Dandenong. Statistical evidences have reflected that the set of population aged 25 to 40 years of
old is affected majorly with obesity concerns [3].17.1% of men have been reported to obese
while 17.3% of the women have been reported to be obese in accordance with the recent
statistical evidence [2]. The major reasons that have been attributed as the root cause of obesity
in young adults include poor nutritional intake and high consumption of energy rich diet [1]. The
paper would effectively focus on the aspect of including diet modifications in order to promote a
healthy lifestyle among the young adults of Dandenong.
Community Engagement
In order to spread awareness related to obesity prevention in the greater city of
Dandenong, health evaluation camps would be organized across the city. The awareness camps
would include collaborating at different levels. The major stakeholders of this campaign would
be the primary health officer; young adults aged 25 to 40 years, volunteers and other
governmental and non-governmental organizations. Collaboration at different levels such as
community, organizational, interpersonal and individual level would be organized. In order to
effectively convince and partner collaboration, brochures and pamphlets comprising of a detailed
explanation about the highlights of the health evaluation program would be outlined. Further, to
provide an insight into the objectives of the program a power point presentation would be
designed that would effectively portray the short term and the long term goals of the program
and the manner in which the camps would be organized. It should be critically noted here that
health promotion and evaluation camps would be arranged across 8 major provinces of the

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greater city of Dandenong. The initial phase would include obtaining a formal permission from
the state government bodies and the city councils within the legislative limit of the greater city of
Dandenong. A presentation highlighting the statistical scenario of the prevalence of obesity
across the city would be briefed, followed by highlighting the major health determination factors
[3]. Further the objectives of the health evaluation camp would be highlighted and the strategies
that would be undertaken in order to fulfill the objectives. Primarily the goals would comprise of
spreading awareness by virtue of education and obtaining support from the community health
centres and educational centres across the city. Sessions would be conducted while dealing with
the administration members of these organizations and the importance of a balanced proportion
of nutrition would be elaborated [4]. It is expected that on complying with the above stated
strategies, effective support would be obtained that would help in partnering with the
organizational bodies and successfully conducting the health promotional and evaluation camps.
Program design and evaluation
Goal
The goal of the obesity prevention plan will be:
 Utilizing obesity preventive measures to improve the health and wellbeing of
mid-aged adults (25 to 40 years) through the promotion of healthy food
consumption
 Dealing with alcohol related behavior throughout the city of Dandenong.

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SMART objectives
The SMART objective for the health promotional program will be – to decrease the
consumption of fast food products by 30% and decreasing the alcohol behavior by 20% in 25 to
40 year old adults of city of Dandenong within 3 years.
Table 1
Program design and
planning strategies
Evaluation methods
Policy  The local government
will commence free
full body checkup
facilities in every
month in specific
locations of the city.
 This will be a
sustainable program
as after the check up
all the people who are
having the risk factor
of obesity will be
aware of their health
and will be able to
quit unhealthy food
 People who are
working in public or
private organizations
will be provided with
water breaks and the
canteen of such
workplace will
contain healthy food
so that consumption
of fast foods could be
controlled.
 Taxes will be imposed
on fast foods as well
as unhealthy
beverages in the local
level by implementing
local governance
 Percentage of
helathcare
organizations
providing free health
checkup will be
assessed.
 Percentage of
organizations
providing water
breaks will be
evaluated post
intervention. Besides
canteen and their
compliance will also
be assessed bi-weekly.
 Number of stores
proving such food
products in high price
will be assessed.

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taxes so that
consumption of these
could be screened and
controlled.
Community  Physical activity
environment will be
created in the
community so that
physical activity could
be increased.
 Price of healthy food
will be decreased by
implementing a local
health policy and
promotional events
for them will be
organized so that their
consumption could be
increased.
 frequency of such
events will be
determined with the
help of local
government
 Number of water
fountains installed
post interventions will
be assessed.
 Decreased price of
healthy food will be
evaluated by practical
evaluation form the
market.
Organizational  All the canteen heads,
event managers, local
helathcare officers
will be provided with
educational training
so that they can
promote healthy
eating and water
consumption among
the mid aged
population.
 Water fountains will
be installed in all the
offices so that
increased water
consumption could be
promoted.
 After each educational
session, a small
questionnaire will be
provided to the
participants and the
percentage of
attendance in the
training will be
assessed so their
understanding of the
issue could be
assessed.
 All the offices will be
asked to provide data
regarding fountain
installation pre
intervention.
Interpersonal  All the newsletter and
notice board of the
community and
organizations will be
used to promote
healthy eating and
water consumption.
 Effectiveness of the
notice published and
promotional
campaignscarried
outcould be assessed
by the joining of
individual in such
educational sessions.

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Individual  All the mid aged
individual will be
asked to join a bi-
weekly educational
program regarding the
healthy eating.
 Trainings will be
organized in officers
and helathcare
facilities as well as
they will be provided
with alcohol rejection
related booklet to
make them quit their
alcoholic habit. Some
training resources will
be provided to the
primary health
promotional officers.
 Their understanding
will be evaluated
using a small
questionnaire about
the topic.
 Participation in
training sessions will
determine the
compliance of
employees in the
training session.
Justification of choice of strategies
The strategies used in this health promotional campaign are supported by the researchers.
as mentioned in the research that to decrease the consumption of any unhealthy food or
beverages, the first thing governments should do is impose extra taxation so that majority of the
consumers cannot afford the product [5]. This will help in saving a majority of the population
from that unhealthy product, making them, divert to healthy food options [6]. Besides another
studies also mention that water related interventions such as installations of water fountains,
providing water breaks are helpful in increasing water intake of the population [7]. Further,
educational and training sessions are important in reinforcing educational knowledge [8]. Hence,
these are the rationale which helped to decide these strategies for health promotional program for
obesity prevention in Dandenong.

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Describe the evaluation method
The evaluation method that were chosen for the objectives decided by the public health
organizers and implemented for health promotional plan for obesity prevention were also backed
by several researches [9]. Researcher mentions that to evaluate the understanding of any session,
questionnaires are appropriate as it helps to reinforce the provided knowledge in the individual
[10]. Further, evaluation methods chosen for taxation, prove rise and decrease were also chosen
as per the need of the strategies and hence, the evaluation methods were relevant [11].
Sustainability and Governance
Sustainability and Governance play an important role in determining the effectiveness of
a program. The goals would be assimilated into the health care system by means of action plan
that would use different strategies as mentioned in Table 1. Further, it must also be mentioned
that strategies to prevent the problem related to obesity would also be adapted at workplaces in
order to ensure healthy living. This would be done by organizing marathons and other sporting
events to boost employees to engage themselves in healthy lifestyle.
In order to administer a thorough governance an autonomous governing committee would
be framed that would stringently monitor the effectiveness of the programs. The autonomous
governing committee would comprise of four members that would include representatives from
local governing body, private and public healthcare organizations, non-governmental
organization and the coordinator of this health care promotion program. The funding of the
project would be obtained from the non-government organization and the funds acquired would
be managed by the accounts department of the health promotion team. The autonomous
reference committee would be responsible for governing and regulating the entire project. The

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evaluation of the program would be stringently monitored by the quality control department of
the health evaluation camp. The quality control department would be stringently monitor the
program at every level and ensure that trained individuals are employed across all the eight
centers of the health evaluation camps. Further, it should also be noted that a panel of trained
nutritionists would be responsible for designing an effective nutrition plan according to the basal
metabolism index of the participants. It is critical to note here that the participants would majorly
be of the middle-aged group belonging to approximately 25-40 years; hence rehabilitation action
plans would also be undertaken. This would be done in order to apply effective modification in
the life style of the individuals. Hence, it is expected that after a time period of 4 years the
project would effectively help in the reduction of obese individuals and ensure a healthy life
style.
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