Teen Obesity: Causes and Nursing Interventions

This assignment explores the rising issue of obesity among teenagers, focusing on the reasons behind their physical inactivity and unhealthy lifestyle choices. It presents a meta-analysis of research findings highlighting the increasing trend of obesity in both urban and rural areas. The paper emphasizes the crucial role nurses play in guiding students towards a healthier lifestyle through educational campaigns and interventions within schools.

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Reasons behind physical inactivity amongst obese teenagers
Introduction
There is a direct relation between obesity and physical activity and being a nursing student it is
our prime responsibility to know the reasons behind this inactivity and increase awareness
amongst the teenagers to opt for a good lifestyle. Nurses are placed ideally to take care of health
promotion interventions, inclusive of physical fitness. This topic has been chosen by me as it is
the biggest problem now a days amongst teenagers they are somewhat not aware of the demerits
of this problem. Generally lesser amount of physical activities and high level of inactivity leads
to this problem and young generation especially teenagers are getting targeted (Maciulevičienė,
2015). This is all because of the lifestyle they have adopted and it is high time now that they
should change this now around. Over the past several years around 34% of teenager population is
affected with obesity, therefore, a tremendous need of intervention is required and nurses play an
important role in guiding the youth as they are the one who is near to them in places like schools
(Maciulevičienė, 2015).
Research objective

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The increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight among adults has increased with the time
and is a major threat issue for all of us. This study presents a systematic review of obesity and
overweight to present a more accurate data.
Review
The review will focus on increasing tends of obesity among teenagers over the past few decades.
It will also consider the estimated prevalence rate of obesity which is lowest in the year 2000-
2003(3.7%) and highest during 2010-2015(8%) (Maciulevičienė, 2015). As per meta-analysis
which will be done will be based on the study that obesity was 2 times higher in the year 2010-
2015 as compared to the year 2000-2003, and that the rate is high in urban areas as compared to
rural areas. It is strongly believed that urbanization leads to lack of physical activity which
finally results in obesity among teenagers.
Research Method
The systematic review summarizes the results of studies which are designed carefully for
healthcare studies and also provides a very high standard of evidence on the effectiveness of
interventions done by the healthcare industry. The main strength of this review is physicians tend
to make the better decisions when they are aware of the preferences and circumstances of their
patients (Paulus, 2004). Sound clinical and healthy policies are thus made by reviewing the
available evidence. It has limitation also which says that the Meta analysis does not overcome

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the problem which was inherent from the designs and primary studies. It also does not rectify the
bias which is the result of various publications which focus on dramatic data.
Data Analysis
We will search Embace, Medline, SPORTdiscus, LILLACS, a web of science and various
research database for observational studies published till 2015. We will also look for various
research networks to identify articles which are potential and related to our research. Keywords
will be used for search engines like sitting time, health status, mortality. Data will be analyzed to
identify the prevalence of obesity using Meta package, variability and heterogeneity measures
will be assessed and random effect model will be considered to know the prevalence (Reas,
Masheb, and Grilo, 2004).. Following variables will be measured using 1) study weights 2)
standard errors. All the data collected will be secondary from various articles and research
papers.
Role of Nurse
Nurses will be sent to various schools to guide the students about the demerits of being obese.
They will also show them the importance of physical activity and healthy lifestyle to reduce the
obesity. Nurses will be trained and they will conduct few sessions where the information will be
given to selected age group (Paulus, 2004).

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Time table
1st – 2nd month - Literature Formulation/Review of research question
3rd – 5th month – searching various articles and data to know the various facts and figures.
6th – 9th month - Collection of data
10th – 13th month - Writing of report
14th – 18th month - Follow up; presentation of research to peers and colleagues.
Conclusion
The review of meta-analysis data will show an increasing trend in obesity and overweight
amongst teenagers in both urban and rural areas. This is resulting in a disease like hypertension,
diabetes; heart attacks putting the extra economic burden on families as the treatment of the
disease are very high. For low income countries like Bangladesh, it is very difficult for them to
tackle with these. As per the study, various campaigns must be organized in order to educate the
students so that they can be engaged in various physical activities and adopt a healthy lifestyle
(Coombs, Stamatakis and Lee, 2015). The main objective of this study is to know the causes of
obesity among teenagers and the results shows that physical inactivity unhealthy lifestyle, eating

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junk foods are the various factors which are leading to obesity among them and it is high time
now for parents to guide their children.

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References
Coombs, N., Stamatakis, E. and Lee, I. (2015). Physical inactivity among older adults:
Implications for life expectancy among non-overweight and overweight or obese
individuals. Obesity Research & Clinical Practice, 9(2), pp.175-179.
Maciulevičienė, E. (2015). Dimensions for physical activity, attitude towards it and reasons
that hinder physical activity among teenagers from Lithuania and Germany. Sporto
mokslas / Sports Science, 4(82), pp.30-36.
Paulus, D. (2004). Teenagers and their family practitioner: matching between their reasons
for encounter. Family Practice, 21(2), pp.143-145.
Reas, D., Masheb, R. and Grilo, C. (2004). Appearance vs. Health Reasons for Seeking
Treatment Among Obese Patients with Binge Eating Disorder. Obesity Research, 12(5),
pp.758-760.