Curbing rise in obesity and overweight in Western Australia in indigenous children living in regional areas
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This document discusses the public health rationale and program plan for curbing the rise in obesity and overweight in indigenous children living in regional areas of Western Australia. It includes an assessment of needs, program overview, objectives, intervention strategies, logic model, and conclusion of the plan.
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Public Health Rationale and Program Plan
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Table of Contents Topic: Curbing rise in obesity and overweight in Western Australia in indigenous children living in regional areas...............................................................................................................................1 1) Assessing Needs..........................................................................................................................1 2) Program Overview and Setting the Goal.....................................................................................3 3) Objectives of Strategic Goals......................................................................................................4 4) Intervention Strategies.................................................................................................................4 5) Logic Model................................................................................................................................5 6) Conclusion of Plan.......................................................................................................................6 References........................................................................................................................................7
Topic:Curbing riseinobesity andoverweightinWesternAustraliain indigenous children living in regional areas 1) Assessing Needs Childhood refers to an important time for development of physical and mental health of an individual, that create foundations for future wellbeing and sustaining a good life (Awofeso, Al Imam and Ahmed, 2019). Most of the children in Australia are living healthy and doing well. Although, this stage is also a time of vulnerability where such outcomes might vary depending on factorslikewherechildrenlive,lifetrauma,family’scircumstancesandsurrounding environment.Obesity at childhood stage poses a serious and urgent public health challenge within Australia, especially among aboriginal children. They are profoundly found on relatively high risk as compared with non-Aboriginal children, having a wide gap in weight status among these two groups indicates an increased potential risk of metabolic disorders earlier in their life (Mihrshahi, Gow and Baur, 2018). Obesity which is raised due to increasing issue of is the second biggest contributor to raise health disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous people. The bulk of increasing gap is attributable to Aboriginal Australian living in non-remote settings, that make up over 81% of the total Aboriginal population in Australia. Factors which increases risks of obesity includes excessive consumption of junk foods, low-nutrient foods, sugar-sweetened beverages and more. Children with obesity and overweight are likely to become obese at adult age, including development of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and more at younger ages (Parker and Fleming, 2020). Through statistical data of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey year 2012–13, shows a higher difference in proportion of aboriginal and non-aboriginal children of aged 2 to 14 years are range from 8.4% to 4.8% as underweight, while overweight or highly obese lies from 30% to 25% (Australia's children, 2019). In this regard, such difference in overweight as well as obesity is mainly occur due to higher obesity rates with 10% which is relatively higher by 3.5%, and increasing continuously in Indigenous children in aged 10–14, as shown in below figure - 1
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Figure1: Overweight and obese children aged 2–14, by Indigenous status and age group, 2011– 12 and 2012–13 On the basis of demographic like Western Australia as shown in Table 1, it has evaluated that there is a significantly higher proportion of children in Western Australia who are living in the most disadvantaged areas i.e. indigenous children living in regional areas. Therefore, comparatively they are higher on risk of overweight or obese issues (44.9% compared with 19.3%) than other areas (Health and Wellbeing of Children in Western Australia, 2017). This associated health risks further then appear to increase BMI at adult age that increase morbidity and mortality at population level. In WA, ration of risk of getting overweight is near about 29.0 BMI while obesity range from 30.0 to 40.0 BMI, due to improper diet and poor eating habit, at childhood, especially among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (Allen and et. al., 2018). 2
Table 1: Prevalence of children by body mass index categories, 5 to 15 years 2) Program Overview and Setting the Goal The complex nature of obesity and overweight both influenced highly by interplay between a biological and genetic characteristic of an individual, including lifestyle factors’ impact such as poor nutritional food, consumption of junk food and more. As Aboriginal Australians and children livingof WesternAustralia(WA), are relativelyon higher risk of obesity and overweight issues (Liamputtong, 2019). Therefore, it indicates requirement of a comprehensive and multifaceted approach for target improvements to reduce its prevalence. In addition to this, a strong advocacy voice is required to realise the key actions that are needed for curbing the rates of overweight and obesity among indigenous children of WA living in regional areas (Farrell, 2018). For this purpose, interventions are needed to be taken, based on strategic goal –“To prevent and improve obesity or overweight related risk behaviours among children of 0-10 years from Indigenous families or socio-economically disadvantaged”. 3
3) Objectives of Strategic Goals Objective 1:Criteria to determine the overall impact of community and comprehensive based intervention programs on prevalence of overweight/obesity in youth (0 to 10 years) To assess the feasibility of intervention components and impacts on children’s eating and physical activity patterns; To understand the socio-cultural factors that promote overweight/obesity in youth and how they can be influenced To estimate overall burden of obesity in childhood including loss of quality of life Objective 2:Criteria for taking policy actions targeting obesity among aboriginal children within next two months To make investment for increasing effectiveness of the scaled-up policy actions at multiple levels Toimplementpolicyactionsandwhole-of-life-courseapproachforpreventionof children from obesity. To introduce broad engagement of stakeholders for systematic and ongoing surveillance of risk analysis Objective 3:Criteria to meet effective policy governance, accountability and coordination among policy makers of Western Australia in next few months To reduce health disparities among children of Western Australia To robust surveillance and evaluation mechanism for monitoring health data To build best policies by outlining the evidence of gap difference between health of aboriginal and non-original children 4) Intervention Strategies Of particular concern is its hold in indigenous populations, the regional areas of Western Australia have the highest rates of obesity/overweight among youth. Yet the capacity to respond towards this epidemic is very limited (Burke, 2018). Therefore, in order to meet strategic objectives and run effective programmes for reducing the prevalence of youth (or children) obesity/overweight issues, quasi-experimental designs will be used for community studies (based on demographic based i.e. indigenous children living in regional areas. In addition, impact of 4
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interventions and outcome assessments will be being measured by surveying on a small sample of youth, across intervention as well as control communities in Western Australia (Parker and Fleming, 2020). The multi-strategy with multi-setting interventions will be run for over three years, before final follow up data will be collected to analyse impact of programme on prevalence rates of obesity among children. Along with this, interventions will be being informed via socio-cultural studies, which will help in determining societal, cultural and family influences on intake of food, physical activity or body size perception. 5) Logic Model A logic model represents a road map which provides the detailed and shared relationships among various resources, activities, measurable outputs and outcomes, as well as impact of entire program (Mihrshahi, Gow and Baur, 2018). It depicts overall relationship between activities of plan and its intended effects. Therefore, to give more detail about interventions and plan made to reduce prevalence rates of obese/overweight aboriginal children in WA, a logical model has been made in following way – Strategic Goal:“To prevent and improve obesity or overweight related risk behaviours among children of 0-10 years from Indigenous families or socio-economically disadvantaged”. Logical Model- Criteria of Program Objectives Evaluation questionsOutput & Measures Indicators Datacollection Strategy Objective 1:Criteria todeterminethe overallimpactof communityand comprehensive basedintervention programson prevalenceof overweight/obesity in youth Istheplanincluded appropriate supervisionsfor determiningoverall impactof comprehensiveand communitybased programs? Notesandstatistical past and current data of targeted population Lasttenyearsdata andtrendsabout prevalenceratesof overweight/obesityin indigenous children of regionalareasof Western Australia Objective 2:Criteria fortakingpolicy Ifpolicyactions undertakeningiven FeedbackandRoutine documentationand 5
actionstargeting obesityamong aboriginalchildren withinnexttwo months periodand implemented well? evidence reportsregularfeedbacksor monitoring process Objective 3:Criteria tomeeteffective policygovernance, accountabilityand coordinationamong policymakersof Western Australia in next few months Ifprogram successfully intervene bylinking governmentand associatedpolicy makerswithmore intensive actions. Effectivenessof Coordinationamong governmentand policy makers Follow-up analysis 6) Conclusion of Plan The Western Australia is considered as one of those nation which has highest rates of overweight/obesity in the world. Of particular concern, its regional areas consist high prevalence rates of indigenous children who are at greater risks of obesity and overweight issues. However, a number of interventions have been taken before, but still this ratio is high among aboriginal and non-original children. Therefore, concerning this issue, more actions and interventions are needed to be taken, as proposed in present report by developing an action plan which is represented by logical model. By implementing the given strategies would help in meeting set objectives and goals in given period of time. 6
References Books and Journals Allen, J. M. & et. al. (2018). Raising levels of school student engagement and retention in rural, regional and disadvantaged areas: is it a lost cause?.International Journal of Inclusive Education.22(4). 409-425. Awofeso, N., Al Imam, S., & Ahmed, A. (2019). Content analysis of media coverage of childhood obesity topics in UAE newspapers and popular social media platforms, 2014- 2017.International Journal of Health Policy and Management.8(2). 81. Burke, P. (2018).An Australian Indigenous diaspora: Warlpiri matriarchs and the refashioning of tradition. Berghahn Books. Farrell, A. (2018). Children’s Rights to Healthy Development and Learning in Quality Early ChildhoodEducationandCareinAustralia.InPositiveSchoolingandChild Development(pp. 383-398). Springer, Singapore. Liamputtong,P.(Ed.).(2019).Publichealth:localandglobalperspectives.Cambridge University Press. Mihrshahi, S., Gow, M. L., & Baur, L. A. (2018). Contemporary approaches to the prevention andmanagementofpaediatricobesity:anAustralianfocus.MedicalJournalof Australia,209(6), 267-274. Parker,E., &Fleming,M.L.(2020).HealthPromotion:Principlesandpracticeinthe Australian context. Routledge. Online Australia'schildren.(2019).[Online]AvailableThrough:< https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/health/ overweight-and-obesity >. Health and Wellbeing of Children in Western Australia. (2017). [Online] Available Through:< https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Files/Corporate/Reports%20and %20publications/Population%20surveys/Health-and-Wellbeing-of-Children-in-Western- Australia-2017.pdf >. 7