Prevention of Obesity among Teenage Youth in Middle or High School

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
Public Health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
PUBLIC HEALTH
Health Promotion Title
Prevention of Obesity among the teenage youth in middle or high school
Introduction
According to Strugnell et al. (2016), obesity among the teenagers who are in their
middle and the upper schools immediately and distally affects both the physiological and
psychological health. The stubbornly high prevalence of obesity throughout the world and
persistence of the childhood obesity into the later stages of the life, with overall increase in
the rate of mortality and morbidity highlights that it is a high time of develop effective
prevention and monitoring strategies in order to prevent childhood obesity. The following
public health promotion project plan aims towards reducing the obesity tendency among the
teenage students in the one of the middle or upper schools of Victoria. The health promotion
project plan will initiate with giving a brief outline about the target group. This will be
followed health promotion aims and prevention management perspective. At last the plan will
highlight the stakeholders of the plan, the health message along with activity description and
evaluation proposal.
Rational of the health promotion plan
Health Promotion and Target Group outline
According to the Victorian State Government, at least one out of the four teenage
children who are in their middle school or in their upper school age or either over-weight or
obese. In order words it can be said that at least 35 to 40% of the teenage children who are
between the age group of 10 to 16 years are over-weight or obese in Victoria, Australia. The
assessment of obesity is done based on the body mass index (BMI). Unlike adults where a

2
PUBLIC HEALTH
single BMI can be used across all the age groups, the assessment of obesity for teenage
children with BMI mainly depends on age and current stage of growth. The report published
by the Victorian State Government as per the BMI index highlighted that over-weight equals
or is higher than 85th centile on BMI chart of the teenage and obese is equals or is greater
than 95th centile on the BMI chart. As per the Victorian Government Health Information
(2019), in schools like teenage children (10 to 16 years) in the Williamstown High School is
not meeting the daily physical activity recommendation and at the same time is feeding on
junk food or oily food, which is leading towards the development of the high BMI and
subsequent gain in uncontrolled weight.
Rational of the plan
According to Simmonds et al. (2016) the development of obesity during the early
stage of life is associated with several physiological complications. Llewellyn et al. (2016)
reported that the teenage children or the younger adults who are obese are more likely to
develop type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) during the later stages of their life. T2DM is a
chronic health conditions which has no cure and disrupts complete physiological and
psychological well-being. Moreover,, being over-weight or obese during early stages of life
increase the vulnerability of developing hypertension, arthrosclerosis, which eventually
transforms into complex cardiovascular disease after 30 years of age. Obese youths are also
likely to suffer from fatty liver disease and thereby hampering overall proper of digestion and
protein metabolism (Faienza et al., 2016). Rankin et al. (2016) reported that youths who are
over-weight suffers from poor self-esteem and negative body image that decreases their
social participation leading to isolation and development of depression. In some cases,
obesity in youths causes anorexia nervosa. Sahoo et al. (2015) also reported that obese youth
also suffer from attention deficient hyperactive disorder creating a gap in the academic

3
PUBLIC HEALTH
performance. Thus it can be said that effective prevention of obesity from the teenage or
youths between the age group of 10 to 16 years will help to improve health related quality of
life. The Faienza et al. (2016) study highlighted that reduction in the obesity through effective
management of the diet plan and promotion of the physical activity among the teenage
children help in reducing the vulnerability of getting affected with cardiovascular problems
and T2DM by 50%. However, Faienza et al. (2016) reported that the healthy life style habits
must be maintained throughout in order to strike out the modifiable factors behind metabolic
disease development.
Health Promotion Aims
 Increase in the percentage of healthy (normal body weight) youth or teenage between
the age group of 10 to 16 years in Williamstown High School
 Increase in the mean number of the daily serves of vegetables and foods and decrease
in the intake of junk or oily food
 Increase in teenage participation of 30 minutes of daily physical activity exercise
Reduction in Junk food Intake
Specific (S) Reduction in junk food intake
Measurable (M) Reduction in total food intake during the recess hours
Achievable (A) Dividing the large meal in small subparts by nutritionist and making two
to three recess hours in school for small span of time
Realistic (R) Replacement of Junk food with fruits and vegetables in school canteen
menu chart
Timeline (T) 3 months
Promotion of physical activity
Specific (S) Physical activity to reduce body mass
Measurable (M) 30 minutes of physical activity