Advocacy Presentation and Discussion: Childhood Obesity in Spain

This presentation focuses on the escalating trend of childhood obesity in Spain, which has one of the highest prevalence rates in Europe. The presentation highlights the issue's impact on children's health, linking it to chronic diseases and social challenges. It justifies the choice of childhood obesity as a critical public health concern, emphasizing its connection to economic factors and family environments. The presentation reviews existing interventions, such as advertisement regulations and government initiatives, and proposes advocacy through a letter to the Ministry of Health and Education. This approach aims to address maternal education, social media influence, and school nutrition, offering detailed actions and justification. The presentation concludes with contact information for relevant ministries and a comprehensive reference list.

Running head: ADVOCACY PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 1
Advocacy presentation and discussion
Name of Author
Institution
Date of Submission

ADVOCACY PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 2
Advocacy Presentation and Discussion
The Issue and Population
Childhood obesity has been on an increasing trend globally. Spain has the second highest
childhood obesity prevalence in Europe. Spain has registered one of the highest overweight and
obesity cases in Europe. According to Vaquera et al. (2018), only 46 % of children born in Spain
had normal weight. Obesity among boys in Spain stood at 22% with only about 12 % being girls.
Notably, child obesity cases in Spain are higher among mothers with preexisting obesity cases
and unemployed parents. Similarly, child obesity cases stood at 35% among children from less
educated mothers. Also, 19% of immigrant children in Spain were likely to suffer from
childhood obesity. Data also indicates that more than half of the children in Spain between the
ages of 5-10 years had unhealthy weight with about 16% being obese (Gil & Takourabt, 2017).
Childhood obesity is the issue for advocacy as it significantly facilitates occurrences of negative
health outcomes. Spinelli et al. (2019) notes that obesity is a major factor to the morbidity and
mortality of chronic health conditions like cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. For the children
obesity affects children through both short-term and long-term health and social consequences.
Justification of your Choice of Issue
Childhood obesity is a major global health concern. There is a close relationship between
childhood obesity and chronic health consequences. Notably, some of the cormobidities
associated with obesity include type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, hypertension and
coronary heart issues. The children would also be affected psychologically eventually affecting
their social wellbeing. For instance, social acceptance, self-esteem and low education attendance
is often associated with childhood obesity (Spinelli et al., 2019).
Spain as a nation experienced a major economic crisis in 2008. The economic reconstruction got
associated with concerns about healthy growth among children. Data indicates that in Europe,
the major causes of unhealthy weight include unregulated food consumption patterns, levels of
physical activity, education levels and childcare practices. In Spain, childhood obesity is majorly
influenced by the family environment that entails diet, quality and quantity of food. The family
environment in Spain entails factors like marital status, education level, nutrition, family income
and the weight of the parents (Vaquera et al., 2018). The context of Spain reveals a nation that
was affected by the economic crisis and hence a significant number of families suffered from
financial distress.
The Alternative Actions (or Campaigns Currently in Use)
According to Khajeheian et al. (2018), there are advertisement regulatory controls aimed at
reducing misleading adverts to children over the media. The enforcement of the regulation has

ADVOCACY PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 3
not been effected well. Most of the regulatory impact is felt by television channels. However, the
main stream source of information currently is social media. Given that social media targets a
diverse audience it influences the nutrition of parents who feed children similar foods.
Further, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition implemented a multifaceted approach
targeting obesity prevention, nutrition guidelines and physical activity requirements. The health
administration and Pediatric Care department in Spain has always advocated for the obesity
prevention at the family level and school setting (Franco et al., 2010). Local initiatives in Spain
encourage walking, and cycling to increase the physical activity of the citizens as a way of
introducing healthy choices in public transport. This extends to redesigning of built environment
to create spaces for children to engage in recreational facilities. Schools are trained on the best
nutrition and extracurricular activity for the children to reduce incidences of obesity.
The Action you have chosen
Advocacy tool to reduce the childhood obesity levels in Spain would be through advocacy and
lobbying. It will be critical to write a letter to the Ministry of Health in Spain to enact stricter
laws regarding maternal awareness creation, and social media advertisement and school program
changes.
Justification of your chosen Action
Despite the policies that have been previously enacted by the government of Spain, the high
prevalence of childhood obesity still persists. The content of the letter designed would be for
both the ministry of health and the ministry of education.
a. Low education level among mothers in Spain facilitates the persistence of childhood
obesity. A significant number of women do not have adequate knowledge of best
nutrition alternatives that can prevent obesity (Morgen et al., 2013). Similarly, there are
less emancipation opportunities to empower the mothers on the key measures they can
implement to reduce the childhood obesity prevalence in Spain. Thus, many children
born by the less educated mothers have a high probability of being obese relative to those
born by more educated mothers.
b. Social media has significantly changed the lifestyles of people adults and children alike.
Development of online communities based on social interactions has created a group
thinking approach that affects nutrition. To some extent, the social media promotes
weight loss. However, the freedom enjoyed by social media users affects personal
choices of children. Food marketing is not easily controlled over the social media hence
influencing many children to adopt poor eating habits. The addiction associated with
social media also deprives most children sleep at night (Khajeheian et al., 2018). Sleep
disturbance is associated with obesity development among the children.

ADVOCACY PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 4
c. Schools shape the lives and determine the future of the society. Children spend most of
their time at school with their instructors. In Spain there is no clarity on a nationwide
regulatory framework for school menus. Schools determine their own quantitative and
qualitative nutritional value of their meals. Further, the amount of physical activities and
physical education infrastructure in schools is also not standardized. (Franco et al., 2010).
The vending machines are also blamed to dispense low quality foods. These loopholes
negatively affect the fight against childhood obesity.
Details Regarding how to take Action
For efficacy of the advocacy plan, multiple letters should be written to the ministry of Education
and Ministry of health underscoring the content of the actions for change to be effected. Many
people would have to be mobilized to send the advocacy message to the relevant authorities for
greater impact.
Letter Address details:
Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
Madrid
Website: https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/portada.html
Twitter: @educaciongob
The Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare
Website: https://www.mscbs.gob.es/en/directoa/home.htm
Mail: [e-mail]

ADVOCACY PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION 5
Reference List
Franco, M., Sanz, B., Otero, L., Domínguez-Vila, A., & Caballero, B. (2010). Prevention of
childhood obesity in Spain: a focus on policies outside the health sector. SESPAS report
2010. Gaceta Sanitaria, 24, 49-55.
Franco, M., Sanz, B., Otero, L., Domínguez-Vila, A., & Caballero, B. (2010). Prevention of
childhood obesity in Spain: a focus on policies outside the health sector. SESPAS report
2010. Gaceta Sanitaria, 24, 49-55.
Gil, J. M., & Takourabt, S. (2017). Socio‐economics, food habits and the prevalence of
childhood obesity in Spain. Child: care, health and development, 43(2), 250-258.
Khajeheian, D., Colabi, A. M., Shah, A. K., Binti, N., Radzi, B. W. M., Jasimah, C. W., &
Jenatabadi, H. S. (2018). Effect of social media on child obesity: Application of structural
equation modeling with the Taguchi method. International journal of environmental
research and public health, 15(7), 1343.
Morgen, C. S., Rokholm, B., Brixval, C. S., Andersen, C. S., Andersen, L. G., Rasmussen, M., ...
& Sørensen, T. I. (2013). Trends in prevalence of overweight and obesity in Danish
infants, children and adolescents–are we still on a plateau?. PloS one, 8(7).
Spinelli, A., Buoncristiano, M., Kovacs, V. A., Yngve, A., Spiroski, I., Obreja, G., ... &
Sant’Angelo, V. F. (2019). Prevalence of severe obesity among primary school children
in 21 European countries. Obesity facts, 12(2), 244-258.

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Vaquera, E., Jones, R., Marí-Klose, P., Marí-Klose, M., & Cunningham, S. A. (2018). Unhealthy
weight among children in Spain and the role of the home environment. BMC research
notes, 11(1), 591.