Community Teaching Plan: Obesity Predictors and Control in Houston

This report details a community teaching plan aimed at addressing obesity within the Hispanic population in Houston, Texas. The plan identifies predictors of obesity such as maternal health, dietary habits, and lack of exercise. It outlines teaching strategies, including interactive presentations and the use of visual aids to educate the target audience on healthy eating habits and the risks associated with obesity, like heart disease and diabetes. The plan also includes an epidemiological rationale, emphasizing the high prevalence of obesity in the Hispanic community. The evaluation of the teaching experience involved questionnaires and feedback, revealing positive community engagement and insights into cultural influences on food choices. The plan also identifies strengths, such as its focus on a specific community and the use of multimodal teaching methods, while acknowledging limitations like the exclusion of children and the elderly. References to relevant research are also included.

Running head: COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN
COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Obesity can be termed as a medical condition, where the excess body has accumulated having an
adverse effect on health. It increases the risk of other chronic diseases. Some of the ethnic
minorities are more susceptible to obesity. Since, obesity is a public health concern, a
community teaching plan can be effective in addressing the concern (Williams et al., 2016).
Summary of a Community teaching plan
Community based interventions are necessary for burgeoning the epidemic of the obesity.
The long term community based programs, the setting-based policies plays an important role in
managing obesity (Rogers et al., 2013). There are programs that introduce the settings based
policies, the social and the underlying contextual factors and the use of multiple strategies in
multiple setting. This paper will give an outline of a community teaching plan about the
predicting factors for obesity and possible measures to control obesity.
Target Audience
The target population for the community lesson plan are young and middle aged adults of
the Hispanic population residing in Houston Texas. Some of the other stakeholders that can be
included in the teaching plan are a dietician, a student nurse and an occupational therapist.
There were provisions of measuring body weight of each of the members and a registered
dietician tried to make a brief diet chart for audiences who were considered to be falling in the
obese group.
Planning
Name and credential of the community educator:
Estimated time of teaching: 1 hour

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Location of the campaign: Community hall or Houston, Texas
Resources: Charts, power point presentations, paper handouts and leaflets. All the resources and
the leaflets used should have a detailed explanation of the causes of obesity, the interventions
that needs to be applied for controlling the obesity.
Topic: Predictors of obesity and its prevention
Goals:
 To ensure that all the members who have taken part in the teaching have understood the
factors responsible for obesity.
 To ensure that the target population maintains proper life style and eating habits
 To understand the health behaviors of the Hispanic population leading to obesity
 To ensure collaboration with the community members and the local farmers
Teaching strategies
Objectives Content Methods of teaching
To teach the predictors of
obesity.
Some of the predictors of
obesity are the status of
maternal pregnancy,
gestational gain in weight,
birth weight, dietary habits,
stress and lack of exercise
Interactive presentations. All
the causes should be
accompanied by pictures.
Members present should be
randomly selected to share
their perception about the
causes
To identify the risks for
obesity
Obesity associated risk-
Heart diseases, diabetes,
By showing graphs and case
studies about obesity related

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chronic kidney diseases.
13 types of cancers are
related to obesity, like liver
cancer, thyroid,
meningioma, kidney and
ovarian cancer.
deaths or obesity related
physical conditions.
The participating members
will be able to name some
healthy food by the end of
the presentation
The audience should be
taught about the group of
foods that needs to be
avoided in order to control
obesity. Information about
unhealthy food containing
lots of sugar and fat.
Charts showing food and
their nutrient content.
Physical activities Physical activities like
walking, running and
cycling can be helpful.
Names of some indoor and
outdoor games that helps to
burn calories
PowerPoint presentation
about the name of the
activities along with the
calories lost with each step.
Epidemiological rationale for the topic
The Hispanic population depicts a population that is the second largest ethnic group in
United States. The main rationale for choosing the Hispanic population for a community

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teaching is due to the fact that the Hispanic population ranks second among the highest rates of
obesity. As per the reports, about 60% of the Hispanic population are overweight and more than
half are obese. Children rank the highest among all the obese group (Hales et al., 2017). Another
reason for choosing this topic for a community education plan is that obesity has been found to
be linked with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. Additionally, it can
be found that about 27 % of the Hispanic children residing in United States are not insured (Tapp
et al., 2017). The obesity rate among the Hispanics have doubled among the Hispanic youths in
the last decade. Hence, this is an urgent issue for the `Hispanic population as it can lead to other
chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes.
Evaluation of the teaching experience
The evaluation of the teaching was done by asking questions to both adults and children
about the importance of controlling the body weight for getting an insight to the amount of
knowledge that has been acquired. Young adults were allowed to solve puzzles on healthy food.
We made sure that one of the member of the family as able to name some healthy food and
demonstrate some exercises that can be done regularly. People were asked to talk about some
incidental exercises that they can perform at home. Given below are some of the questions that
has been provided in the questionnaire shared to the participants for the evaluation.
Questions:-
1. Was the teaching effective?
2. Did the educator communicate well?
3. Were the contents of the teaching effective?
4. Did the educator demonstrated in depth knowledge about the subject?

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5. Did the instructor used various modes of the teaching strategies to assist he community
members.
6. Were the information communicated properly?
7. Were the physical exercises demonstrated properly?
8. Are the resources provided (pamphlets, leaflets) relevant to the context?
9. Did the educators share contacts of any referrals?
Community response to the teaching
The members of the community who took part in the meeting responded proactively to
the teaching. They themselves clarified the things that they found to be unclear. One of the
notable thing is that those members who had registered for this community teaching were all
present and there were no absentees. People demonstrated exercises and were able to answer
properly when asked about good food habits.
It can be understood from their feedback, that traditions and culture plays an important
role for the food choices that they tend to make. Researchers have found that maternal perception
and the beliefs about the weight and the health status of the children can provide valuable
insights of the social and the cultural influences on the feeding practices of the Latina mothers. It
has been found that among 142 Mexican- America families, mothers of obese children were
fonder of babies who are chubby (Lindsay e al., 2011). Furthermore, it has been shared by the
respondent that culture influences the habitual consumption of foods and traditions of
preparation and in many cases might lead to restrictions like the exclusion of milk and meat from
the diet.

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Low income status of the Hispanic population has been found to be one of the reason, for
choosing unhealthy and non-nutritious food as some times they cannot afford nutritious fresh
food (Frederick, Snellman & Putnam, 2014, Rosengren, 2014). Many of the members have stated
that work related stress compel then to survive on ready-made food or take –away food. Thy
have also informed they fail to exercise probably due to lack of time or lethargy, that makes them
gain weight (Acheampong & Haldeman, 2013). However, all participants were able to answer
the questions related to the session and were able to fill the feedback form. They have provided
feedback that they found in easy to communicate with the educators, as well as doctor and the
dietician throughout the teaching procedure.
Areas of strength and Improvement
As per the feedback provided by the respondents it can be estimated that the community
teaching plan has been effective in pointing out the probable causes for obesity among the
Hispanic population. Uniqueness for this teaching plan is that, it has focused on a specific
community, considering the high prevalence of obesity among this group. Focusing on one
community at a time can be helpful can be helpful in chalking out individual plans. Another
strength of this community teaching program is that, a multimodal method of teaching has been
used such as the use of power points and posters that provided precise, but valuable information
to the participants. The entire teaching was done in simple English, so that every community
members could communicate.
One of the weakness of this community teaching plan is that, it was only meant for the
young and the middle aged adults. Childhood obesity among the Hispanics is a major concern, as
about 36 % of Hispanic children between the age 2-5 years are obese and overweight. Another

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important limitation is that elderly people were not included in the study. Furthermore, since the
parents of the adolescents were not invited in the teaching, it cannot be guaranteed, that they will
comply with the guidelines that has been recommended for them.

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References
Acheampong, I., & Haldeman, L. (2013). Are nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs
associated with obesity among low-income Hispanic and African American women
caretakers?. Journal of obesity, 2013.
Frederick, C. B., Snellman, K., & Putnam, R. D. (2014). Increasing socioeconomic disparities in
adolescent obesity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(4), 1338-1342.
Hales, C. M., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2017). Prevalence of obesity among
adults and youth: United States, 2015–2016.
Lindsay, A. C., Sussner, K. M., Greaney, M. L., & Peterson, K. E. (2011). Latina mothers'
beliefs and practices related to weight status, feeding, and the development of child
overweight. Public Health Nursing, 28(2), 107-118.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Flegal, K. M. (2015). Prevalence of obesity among
adults and youth: United States, 2011–2014.
Rogers, V. W., Hart, P. H., Motyka, E., Rines, E. N., Vine, J., & Deatrick, D. A. (2013). Impact
of let’s go! 5-2-1-0: a community-based, multisetting childhood obesity prevention
program. Journal of pediatric psychology, 38(9), 1010-1020.
Rosengren, A., Teo, K., Rangarajan, S., Kabali, C., Khumalo, I., Kutty, V. R., ... & Altuntas, Y.
(2015). Psychosocial factors and obesity in 17 high-, middle-and low-income countries:
the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiologic study. International journal of obesity, 39(8),
1217-1223.

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Tapp, H., Smith, H. A., Dixon, J. T., Ludden, T., & Dulin, M. (2013). Evaluating primary care
delivery systems for an uninsured Hispanic immigrant population. Family & community
health, 36(1), 19-33.
Williams, E. P., Mesidor, M., Winters, K., Dubbert, P. M., & Wyatt, S. B. (2015). Overweight
and obesity: prevalence, consequences, and causes of a growing public health problem.
Current obesity reports, 4(3), 363-370.