Foundations of Medicine 2 Assignment 1: Childhood Obesity Factors

This assignment, completed for Foundations of Medicine 2, focuses on childhood obesity and factors hindering healthy lifestyles in children aged 3 to 11. The student identifies a research question, detailing factors influencing childhood obesity. The assignment thoroughly outlines a search strategy using databases like CINAHL, Medline, and PubMed, including keywords, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and a flowchart of search results. The student then summarizes the findings, highlighting how low obesity literacy and cultural influences hinder healthy behaviors. The assignment also explores biological plausibility, gaps in the literature, and directions for future research, emphasizing the need for studies on culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The student references a key study by Renzaho et al. (2018) to support their analysis.

Environmental Epidemiology – Assignment 1
Student name: Student ID:
What is your Research Question? (10%)
What are the factors that hinder healthy lifestyle behaviour and childhood obesity amongst
the school going children aged 3 to 11 years?
Search Strategy (including data sources, keywords/synonyms, inclusion
and exclusion criteria, a flow chart of search hits, etc) (40%)
Various electronic databases such as CINAHL, Medline, and PubMed were used for
gaining result for research question. The key term used for the research includes
“childhood obesity”, “factors influencing childhood obesity “, “ role of culture and
demographic in influencing childhood obesity “. Boolean operators were used for
connecting relationship between search terms. Two boolean operators were used AND and
OR to obtain an accurate answer. The inclusion criteria of the research include journals
within 10 years, based on the childhood obesity, factors influence the childhood obesity.
Any article other than childhood obesity were included.

Record identified through databases
5423 journal
5423 journals
After duplication removed
3756 journals
After screening
789 journalsRecord excluded
504 journals
Full text accessed
109 journals
109 journals
Full text with reason excluded :46 journals
Studies included in the qualitative synthesis
63 journals
Studies exclude for not meeting inclusion :55 journals
1 journal was identified
400862, Foundations of Medicine 2 – Population Health
pg. 2

400862, Foundations of Medicine 2 – Population Health
Summary of results of studies found (20%)
The results of the study suggested that low obesity literacy, cultural influences hindered
them healthy lifestyle behaviours and it hindered the population in childhood obesity
prevention initiatives (Renzaho et al., 2018). The results suggested that improving obesity
literacy among participation using bicultural workers for responsiveness to childhood
obesity prevention initiatives is effective.
Biological plausibility (10%)
In this case, the consumption of fat containing food, racial ethnic identity and low
socioeconomic status are the common contributing factors behind the childhood obesity
that resulted in cardiac issues, diabetes and much other health associated chronic problem.
Physical activity, literacy is effective in reducing the childhood obesity.
pg. 3

400862, Foundations of Medicine 2 – Population Health
Gaps in the literature and future research direction(s) (10%)
While majority of the study on the childhood obesity was conducted on aboriginal
population and non-indigenous population, limited study was conducted on the culturally
and linguistically diverse population. Therefore, study on culturally and linguistically
diverse population is required to conduct for identifying factors influencing childhood
obesity.
pg. 4

400862, Foundations of Medicine 2 – Population Health
References
Renzaho, A. M., Green, J., Smith, B. J., & Polonsky, M. (2018). Exploring factors
influencing childhood obesity prevention among migrant communities in Victoria,
Australia: A qualitative study. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 20(4),
865-883.
pg. 5