Obesity Prevention Among Indigenous Children

Public Health Promotion Project
Due date:Week 8: Monday (midnight Darwin time)
Student Name:
Student Number:
OBESITY PREVENTION AMONG CHILDREN OF AGE 5 TO 11 OF INDIGENOUS
COMMUNITY
NUR329 S1 2019. Assignment 2.
Student Name:
Students Number: Page 1

Introduction
Obesity among children has become of the primary concerns of the healthcare
communities in Australia and as per the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2019), more
than 26% of the children of Australian community is suffering from obesity in
Australia. Further, the data indicated that majority of the weight loss surgeries
conducted in the last 10 years were associated with adolescent obesity as 22,700
adolescent patients undergone weight loss surgery in last 10 years. The rate of
obesity is not just affecting the adolescent group but also affecting the children of the
community as 1 in every 4 children is suffering from obesity in Australia (Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2019). Besides the wide age group affected with obesity and
related adverse effects, children from 5 to 11 are vulnerable to this chronic health
condition as without proper support and lack of intervention for their obesity
condition, they could develop diabetes, and chronic heart conditions, that could
affect their bone strength and development (Mallan et al., 2014).
Besides this, it was seen in the data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
(2019) that the rate of childhood obesity is higher in indigenous community by 1.4%
than non-indigenous community. Due to this, the children of aboriginal community
are at higher risk of developing obesity and associated risk factors than any non
indigenous community in Australia (Anderson et al., 2016).
Hence, the primary aim of this paper would be to develop healthcare promotional
program targeting the 5 to 11 years aged children in Palmerston Primary School so
that they could be provided with effective intervention for their obesity control.
Besides this, this paper would discuss the health promotion prevention management
perspective so that the children of the chosen school could be provided with
effective interventions to control their risk of obesity, through health promotional
program.
Health Promotion and Target Group outline
While addressing the healthcare concerns of the community, it is important for any
healthcare promotional campaign developing organisation to understand the
strength, weakness, ability and ethical considerations that could affect the
community and their health outcome negatively and positively (Dyer et al., 2017). As
per Mihrshahi et al. (2017), while addressing the healthcare aim of the community, it
is important for the healthcare promotional organisation to understand the available
resources for the community and then provide them with intervention so that they
could overcome their risk of health complication. In this aspect, the target group
NUR329 S1 2019. Assignment 2.
Student Name:
Students Number: Page 2

selected for this process are 5 to 11 year old indigenous community children of
Palmerston Primary School and hence, it is important to assess the outline of this
community prior to implement this in the care process. in this aspect, the statistical
rates of Australian Bureau of Statistics (2019) should be discussed as per which
more than 30% of the aboriginal community children are at the verge of
develpop0ing obesity due to their overweight and hence, they are at the risk of
critical healthcare situations. Further, it was also mentioned that the rate of obesity
among primary school children could arise up to 65% by the nest 5 years and
hence, it determines an alarming situation for the health and wellbeing of an entire
community belonging to indigenous Australians (Ho, Garnett & Baur, 2014).
As per Roberts et al. (2019), besides critical health conditions, the risk of cancer due
to increased obesity is one of the critical and crucial situations that is affecting
majority of the world in this century. Besides these, children affected with obesity are
at the high risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, early deaths, and arthritis
and depression (Laws et al., 2014). Further, it was also mentioned in the
governmental reports that majority of the patients affected with obesity were low in
confidence, low in healthcare and self esteemed, hence it not only affected their
physical health, but also affects their emotional and mental Health conditions
(Mihrshahi et al., 2017).
Further, through extensive research of Sanders et al. (2015) it has been proven that
children with 5 to 11 years of age are associated with obesity due to their unhealthy
habits, their physical inactivity, their sedentary lifestyle and their improper diet and
food habits. It was seen that majority of the indigenous children with 5 to 11 years of
age are associated with junk foods, pizza and burger due to which they eating habit
disrupts. Further it was seen that due to the less cost of such food in the society,
they had direct reach to these food items and hence they were affected with such
food and diet habits (Dyer et al., 2017). Palmerston Primary School is one of the
educational institutes that have indigenous children affected with obesity in large
amounts and the number of such children within the age 5 to 11 is higher. Further it
was seen that more than 67% children are at the verge of developing critical
healthcare conditions and hence, this community was chosen as the target audience
for the healthcare promotional program for indigenous community.
Health Promotion Aims
The primary aim of this healthcare promotional program is to provide the indigenous
community and associated parents, whose children are studying in the Palmerston
Primary School with affecting awareness and health literacy so that with the
NUR329 S1 2019. Assignment 2.
Student Name:
Students Number: Page 3