Overweight And Obesity Assignment Report

Running Head: OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY 1
Overweight and Obesity
Name of Student
Name of Professor
Institution Affiliation

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY 2
Date
Introduction
Overweight and obesity is a major health concern in Australia. The health
problem arises from an imbalance in energy in the body. This means that the energy
intake from taking food is much higher than its use. According to Bolton et al. (2016),
20% of children of between 2 and four years were overweight in the year 2017, 27%
of children aged between five and seventeen years had excess weight or were obese.
In the year 2015, 71% of men and 56% of women were either overweight or obese.
This therefore, shows the problem of being overweight is prevalent both for children
and adults in Australia. Being overweight comes with a lot of health challenges. One
of the challenges is the risk of developing chronic diseases increases tremendously.
Excess weight and obesity problem also represents approximately 7% of Australia
burden of disease and hence costing the country more than $8.6 billion yearly
(McGlashan et al., 2018). This paper, therefore, designs a project aimed towards

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educating and sensitizing the community regarding obesity to help overcome this
health problem and improve the health outcomes of individuals. The document also
assesses the factors contributing to the high prevalence of diabetes and explores the
resources required in carrying out this project. The paper also outlines the goals and
the plans of the project targeted at overcoming obesity. The methods used in
evaluating the project are also discussed in this article.
Justification on the need for community education on obesity prevention
targeting children
According to McCrabb et al., (2019), initiatives that are community based and
aimed towards preventing obesity are poorly understood. This, therefore, limits the
potential of the effectiveness of the community-based initiatives and the possibility of
active supporting the initiatives and transmitting of knowledge gained into action. It
is, therefore, essential to assess and understand factors that contribute to best practice
when it comes to health promotion initiatives targeting the community. Despite
massive investment by the Australian government and some non-governmental
organizations, the prevalence of diabetes among school children is still very high.
According to Mantziki et al., (2017), most health promotion programs in Australia use
logic models in planning, but they fail to use evidence from research and existing
frameworks for preventing diabetes.
A survey conducted in Australia indicates that to boost the quality and
effectiveness of diabetes prevention and management programs, there is need for
more support systems to ensure that organization is undertaking these programs adopt
upstream and evidence-based approaches when initiating and implementing the plans.
Excess body weight resulting from either poor diet or lack of exercise is preventable.

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This could significantly help to reduce the burden of chronic diseases resulting from
this condition and hence reduce the negative social and economic costs of obesity and
related complications (Karacabeyli, Allender, Pinkney & Amed, 2018). There is
evidence that the use of community-based initiatives leads to reduce weight gain,
which is unhealthy (Owen et al., 2018), obesity also affects the psychological well-
being and the social life of children. This project, therefore, aims to understand why
the community-based initiatives have not significantly reduced the prevalence of
obesity among children despite the massive investment.
Learning objectives.
1. To identify the health impact that obesity has on children
2. To examine whether failure to use evidence-based practices has failed
community-based initiative in preventing diabetes among children.
3. To establish whether lack of sustainability in the programs has led to the high
prevalence of obesity among children despite the efforts being made to combat
it
4. To examine other factors resulting in a high prevalence of obesity in children
Description and assessment of the situation
Community-based programs are widely used to promote safe and healthy
environments. These programs are mainly used in the preventing obesity among
children and the general population. Despite the popularity of these programs in
preventing and managing obesity, little is known about the effectiveness of these
projects and hence limiting the potential to provide adequate support to improve these