University Essay: Community Based Health Promotion Against Obesity

This essay delves into community-based health promotion programs designed to combat obesity. It begins by outlining the core principles of such programs, emphasizing collaboration and community participation. The essay then explores Laverack's community-based intervention ladder, providing a framework for addressing obesity through various stages of community engagement, from readiness assessment to empowerment. It further examines the importance of community capacity building, leadership, and organizational structure in achieving sustainable health outcomes. The essay also discusses health promotion strategies, including educating the public, promoting healthy lifestyles, and utilizing models like the Health Belief Model, the Transtheoretical Model, and the Social Ecological Model to facilitate behavioral changes and address the multifaceted factors contributing to obesity. Finally, it provides a critical analysis of the strengths and limitations of each model.

Running head: COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 1
Community Based Health Promotion Against Obesity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 2
Part 1
The primary purpose of the Community based program is to create a co-operative and
cordial environment which will encourage all the citizens to equally participate and
collaborate for improving the health outcomes and overall quality of life. The approach is
directed towards the whole population in a given community rather than to specific high risk
individuals. The advantages of such program being better accessibility of health service for
every individual, it helps in gaining insights into the social context of any health issue, it
facilitates the relationship and mutual understanding between the cosumer and the
healthservice providers and interaction with other healthcare professionals for improving the
quality of health care(Nickel & von dem Knesebeck, 2019).. Laverack’s community-based
intervention ladder provides a framework and guideline for the ranging from community
readiness and their participation and engagement while addressing a particular health issue to
organizational development and capacity building; collaborative approach and empowerment
of the community. Obesity is a serious health issue worldwide, the easy avaibility of fast
foods has lured the public to consume unhealthy and fat-containing oily foods, modernization
and advancement in technology has led to reduced physical activity and exercise and
encouraged living a sedentary life, which has increased the risk of getting obesed. The health
issue regarding obesity can be addressed considering the ladder of community based
intervention program proposed by Laverack(Gómez et al, 2018). The first approach should be
involved with the readiness and willingness of the public in accepting and addressing the
issue of obesity and participate in implementing effective strategies and programs to
overcome the same. This is usually done by conducting a series of questionnares and
interview sessions asking the people what heath issue they have faced, and how they want to
obercome those to sustain a healthy living. The participation of the community facilates
interaction and exchange of ideas and thoughts with each other. The community participation

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 3
begins with informing the public about the adverse effects and health complexities associated
with obesity through effective communication. Engagement also facilitates community
capacities, improve competency and skill which enables the people to make decision and
implement necessary actions by themselves. Meetings or seminars can be arranged for the
peoples to participate and discuss on the issue of obesity, express their individual views and
opinions which will further help in planning of preventive measures and actions. Partnership
and collaboration with each other is very crucial in the successful implementation of a
community based health program(Christensen et al, 2019). The community should be
dedicated and organized towards their common goal through mutual decision making and
problem soving which is based on their self determination. A well-developed community
requires proper education, training and technical support which helps in improvement of the
quality of life. The community capacity provides a systemic approach for building the
different assests and attributes of the community such as individual participation, leadership,
avaibility of sufficient resources, building a proper organizational structure and program
management. Through community action the people address issue of obesity and make
efforts to reduce its effects. This can be done by encouraging the people to opt for healthy
and balance diet, regular physical exercise, reducing intake of high calorie foods. Community
empowerment provides the community with increased control over their decisions and
resources which influence their life. For a community participation and empowerment to be
successful, a long term strategy should be developed, along with proper assessment of the
needs and assets, collaborating with each other for the exchange of ideas and experience,
implementing an action plan and lastly, monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes(South et
al, 2019).

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 4
Part 2
Sustainable development of any community can be achieved by the combined
participation of the community members, community empowerment and capacity building.
Capacity building helps in addressing the needs and requirements of the community,
undertaking community based action research and supporting the members of the community.
Community empowerment is dependent on the three domains: community participation,
community capacity and community development. Also, there are few other domains which
is involved in improved community empowerment such as mobilization of resources,
leadership, proper organizational structure, increased ability to assess health problems,
collaboration with other organizations and a controlled program management(Sims-Gould et
al, 2019). Participation of people is one of the basic criteria for community empowerment,
where the individual are responsible for assessing their health needs and issues and create
treatment plan accordingly. Leadership is required for ensuring proper organization within
the group. A local leader helps in providing a direction to the program and resoves any
conflicts that arises owing to clash of opinions among the participants. Apart from these, they
are also involved in analysing the data and evaluation of the initiatives taken by the
community through efficient decision making and problem solving skills(Schneider,
Steinman & Dicocco, 2019).. Buiding a good organizational structure helps the community
members to interact and communicate efficiently. The community members should be able to
identify and assess the health problems and implement strategies for resoving them.
Community empowerment helps to improve mobilization of the resources and also strengthen
links to other organizations through parternship and collaboration, which enhances the
interdependency among the community members and promotes inter-organizational and
interpersonal relationship(Leppin et al, 2018). Community empowerment helps in creating an
equitable relationship with the external agents which provides support for the community and

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 5
political leaders, assist in the negotiation of partnership with other healthcare
organizations(Soler et al, 2016). It also fosters effective capacity building through proper
training and skill development. Lastly, community empowerment helps in improved
management of the programs, or in other words, it helps to controls the way a program is
being designed, executed, accomplished and assessed.
Part 3
Health promotion is a program which allows the common people to have an increased
control over their health and its determinants, thereby improving their health condition. The
primary aim or purpose of the health promotion programs is to engage and empower the
individuals along with the community to bring out positive and meaningful variations in their
lifestyle that helps to reduce the risk of a given disease. The three basic strategies of health
promotion involves providing a safe and sustainable environment for the people which will
promote healthy living, ensuring every individual has equal access for adressing their issue,
collaborating with government and non-government agencies for developing a coordinated
action plan. The objective of the health promotion program is to educate the common mass
about the adverse effects and health complexities that are associated with obesity and guide
them in making healtier life choice also empowering them to make informed choice
regarding their health. The preventive approaches that can be taken against obesity are
educating the common people about the nutrition values of healthy foods, encourage them to
eat low calorie healthy foods and restrict the intake of high calorie unhealthy oily foods,
encourage them to perform lots of physical activity such as exercise and yoga, which will
help them stay fit by shedding the excess fat from the body(Stang & Bonilla, 2018)..
The health promotion theories and models helps in the promotion of preventive
strategies which allows the individuals to lead a healthy life. The Health Belief Model is a

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 6
social and psychological health behaviour change model which was developed to explain the
health-related behaviour, specially with respect to acceptance of health service. It is based on
risk susceptibility and severity, perceived benefits and barriers to action along with self
efficacy and cues to action. According to this model, when an individual is aware of the
threat and health risk or find themselves succeptible towards a particular health issue, in this
case, obesity, they are more likely to undergo a behavioural change and take precautionary
meaures against it. The primary interventions of this model involves calculation and
prediction of risk factors along with providing personal advice or experience and educating
the mass. This model is quite useful in addressing obesity(Abdeyazdan, Moshgdar &
Golshiri, 2017). In case of obesity, the perceived risk factor is the lack of a healthy diet which
increases the severity of the disease. The perceived benefit of adhering to a healthy diet chart
helps to reduce the risk, however there are some barrier to that such as, alteration in diet
patterns, lack of physical exercise and absence of spontaneity in selection of food. The cues
to action are the approaches or strategies that are taken by the people to reduce the risk of
obesity, such as bringing a change in the lifestyle, opting for a healthy diet and increased
physical activity. Self efficacy is the most important variable in this model, it is very crucial
for the individual to believe that better outcomes are possible if proper preventive measures
are taken(Rezapour, Mostafavi & Khalkhali, 2016). The individuals should be optimistic
about their health and never lose their hope. Sucessful implementation of the Health Belief
Model can be possible by conducting health assessment of the community by regular
checking their BMI levels, educating them about the health risks related to obesity, informing
the target population about the strategies and actions that are required to reduce the effects,
providing them with support and reducing the barriers to implementation of strategies and
finally, improving the self-efficacy of the individulas by constant encouragement(Igel et al,
2016). The disadvantages of this model is that it does not take into account the non-health

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 7
related behaviours such as social acceptability, as well as environmental and economic
factors.
The second model is called the Change model or Transtheoritical model. This model
is used to assess the willingness of the individual to undergo a healthy transformation. This
model is based on five factors namely: precontemplation, preparation, action, mainatainance
and termination(Romain et al, 2016).. In the precontemplation stage people are unwilling to
take any precautionary measures because they are unaware of the health risks that are
awaiting for them in near future, in the preparation stage the people have gained knowledge
about the adverse effects of a health issue and started to take preventive measures, but they
still may feel reluctance towards changing their behaviour and lifestyle completely. In the
preparation stage, people are determined and ready to take necessary actions and willing to
undergo behavioural change. During action period, the people have successfully undergone
change and are anticipated to keep the change throughout the maintainance stage(Ligmann-
Zielinska, Grady & McWhorter, 2016). Finally in the termination stage, people have
successfully overcomed their unhealthy behaviour and looking forward for a healthy life
ahead. The Transtheoritical model is an useful and widely popular intervention or approach
for treating obesity(. This model is used to monitor the overall behavioural change and
measurement of weight loss that an obesed person undergoes through restricted diet, healthy
food habits and physical exercise, thereby bringing about a positive behavioural change
within them. However, there are some limitations of this model; this theory ignores the social
context in which the change takes place, and also there is no clear indication about the time
required for the change to take place. Moreover, this theory assumes that people always make
coherent and logical plans in their decision making, which is not always true.
The third model, called the Social Ecological Model proposed by Urie Brofenbrenner
emphasizes on the factors which influences an individulas behaviour and provide guidance to

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 8
develop programs through social environment. According to the model, there are five levels
which influence the individual’s behaviour: individual, organizational, interpersonal,
community and policy(Lawlor et al, 2019). This model is used widely for addressing
childhood obesity and examines the factors which influence such issue within an
individual(Vamos et al, 2016). The first stage is assessing the family history of the individual
which can greatly increase the risk for the individual of getting obesed. The preventive
strategies which can be implemented in this case in promoting self awareness and self
efficacy of the individual along with educating him about the risk factors of
obesity(Sheinbein et al, 2019). The second level is ineterpersonal which means an individual
is more likely to get obesed if they have a relationship with someone (friends, family, peers)
who are already obesed. The community such as the neighbourhood, workplace or school
also play a significant role in influencing the individual are are found to be associated with
obesity, The preventive strategy which can be taken is developing policy or creating a healthy
environment which will facilitate healthy living and better health outcomes(Nourian,
Kelishadi & Najimi, 2017). The fourth and final level involves the social and curtural norms
that may influence obesity in an individual. The limitations of the social-ecological model
involves lack of proper education among the majority of people which makes it difficult for
them to understand the message of this model, moreover, this model does not address most of
the diseases, so it is not applicable to those.

COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH PROMOTION AGAINST OBESITY 9
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