Public Health Nutrition: Recommending an Obesity Prevention Approach

This report, prepared by a student, focuses on a public health nutrition (PHN) approach to address the global issue of obesity. It recommends a community-based approach, emphasizing interventions such as classroom curricula, school environment support, and family involvement to promote healt...Read More

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Part A: Recommendation and justification of a PHN approach
Introduction
Obesity has become a major issue of concern in public health worldwide. This is because
of its increasing prevalence of all ages and especially among children and adolescents. The
global attention behind this disorder has come as a realization that obesity increases the risks of
suffering from chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. Generally,
obesity has proved to be a complex metabolic disorder that cannot be treated or managed at its
late stages (1). Therefore, its control and prevention have remained to be a major challenge
despite the increasing awareness about its health-related risks. Lifestyle modification has proved
to be among the easiest ways to control this disorder. However, the approach is faced by a
number of barriers like anti-fat bias, comorbidities limiting the quality of life and physical
exercises, behavioral factors and the lack of access and reimbursement of educational programs.
Further, healthcare systems have not been designed to focus on wellness and health promotion
(7). All these factors combined, weight control and management have become very complicated.
This paper considers the community-based approach as a potential approach in the fight against
obesity disorder.
A community-based approach is a potential approach that enables individuals, families,
and communities to develop healthy behaviors which promote and maintain weight loss.
Basically, this approach will entail social service providers, organizers, and evaluators
enlightening people at the community level. The obesity levels of a community will be assessed
before coming up with sustainable and equitable solutions which can address the problem. Some

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of the interventions to be used in this approach will include classroom curricula, school
environment support, family involvement and fun events (8).
In consideration to classroom curricula, the curricula will be equipped with knowledge on
obesity and the potential hazards to the victim’s future health. Also, the benefits of individual
exercises for weight control will also be addressed in the intervention including the skills and
approaches to maintain body fitness like reduced screen time and having physically active
transportation from time to time (4). This intervention is effective in terms of cost because it
requires curricula. Also, it is acceptable because it not only creates awareness among students
but also equips them with learning skills.
School environment support programs will entail encouraging activities in the school
environment which promotes body exercise. For instance, encouraging the culture of games and
other vigorous activities in schools will help students grow physically fit. Games like rugby in
schools are vigorous and would help students’ loss of weight (5). This can also be supported by a
simple gym to take care of those who might not be interested in games. This intervention will
only entail the purchasing ball games and establishing a simple gym which is cost effective. In
addition, it is an acceptable intervention because games are allowed in schools as part of extra-
curriculum activities. Also, because children from different backgrounds converge, this program
will help promote equity both to children of rich families as well as those from humble
backgrounds.
Family involvement is also a very important approach in the approach. This is because
parents live with their children and can exert a critical influence on them and hence change their
behavior. The intervention entails enlightening parents on the health impacts of obesity and also

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assisting them to come up with a supportive family environment to help children change
unhealthy behaviors and promote personal activities. This is also cost effective and acceptable
because it only entails engagement with parents in a face to face basis (6).
Part B: Critical appraisal of supporting evidence
Teixeira E. The effectiveness of community-based programs for obesity prevention and control.
Patient Intelligence. 2011;3:63-72.
In this article, Teixeira started by acknowledging the fact that obesity was a major public
health concern in the world. He considered it as a major problem because of its prevalence on
people without discrimination. Some of the reasons as to why he acknowledged it as a major
problem is because it increased the risks of other chronic illnesses like diabetes mellitus and
cardiovascular disease (2). According to him, the community-based approach in obesity
intervention was a potentially feasible approach because it could assist control obesity in three
levels, individual level, family level, and community level. At the individual level, the article
indicated that programs like organized athletic competitions would encourage children and
adolescents to participate with the aim of winning. On a family level, the study indicated that
enlightening parents on the importance of weight control for their children and the risks
associated with obesity would make them encourage behaviors and practices which reduce obese
chances for their children. According to this study, community-based approach is effective
because it solves the problem in a wide scope.
Wang Z, Xu F, Ye Q, Tse LA, Xue H, Tan Z, Leslie E, Owen N, Wang Y. Childhood obesity
prevention through a community-based cluster randomized controlled physical activity

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intervention among schools in China: the health legacy project of the 2nd world summer Youth
Olympic Games (YOG-Obesity study). International Journal of Obesity. 2018 Apr;42(4):625.
In this study, Wang, Xu, Ye, Tse, Xue, Tan, Leslie, Owen, and Wang acknowledged
childhood obesity as a global public health problem which could be solved effectively through a
community-based approach. Comparing the approach with other approaches like restricting
television adverts on unhealthy foods, national mass media campaigns to control consumption of
sugar-sweetened beverages and restricting price promotions of sugar-sweetened beverages, they
termed community-based approach as an effective approach because it had a direct target to the
audience and its coverability (3). According to this study, the community-based approach was
cheaper because it dealt with simple activities which were cost effective but with great impacts.
For instance, creating awareness on an individual level would make people change their
lifestyles for the better. This was termed as effective because it allowed people to accept
themselves and realize the dangers of obesity. Considering that acceptance is always very
important in solving any kind of problem, the study indicated that the notion was also applicable
in the case of obese victims.
Conclusion
In summary, this paper has scrutinized the community-based approach as an effective
approach to intervening in the obesity disorder. Among the reasons behind the finding, the paper
has made it clear that the community-based approach has a direct target to the audience and also
its scope is wide. The finding has also been supported by two studies to prove its validity.

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References
1. Dietz WH, Solomon LS, Pronk N, Ziegenhorn SK, Standish M, Longjohn MM,
Fukuzawa DD, Eneli IU, Loy L, Muth ND, Sanchez EJ. An integrated framework for the
prevention and treatment of obesity and its related chronic diseases. Health affairs. 2015
Sep 1;34(9):1456-63.
2. Teixeira E. The effectiveness of community-based programs for obesity prevention and
control. Patient Intelligence. 2011;3:63-72.
3. Wang Z, Xu F, Ye Q, Tse LA, Xue H, Tan Z, Leslie E, Owen N, Wang Y. Childhood
obesity prevention through a community-based cluster randomized controlled physical
activity intervention among schools in China: the health legacy project of the 2nd world
summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG-Obesity study). International Journal of Obesity.
2018 Apr;42(4):625.
4. Leeman J, Myers AE, Ribisl KM, Ammerman AS. Disseminating policy and
environmental change interventions: insights from obesity prevention and tobacco
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5. “Fighting Obesity through Rugby.” Premiership Rugby, 26 May 2016,
www.premiershiprugby.com/news/fighting-obesity-through-rugby/
6. Huang TT, Cawley JH, Ashe M, Costa SA, Frerichs LM, Zwicker L, Rivera JA, Levy D,
Hammond RA, Lambert EV, Kumanyika SK. Mobilization of public support for policy
actions to prevent obesity. The Lancet. 2015 Jun 13;385(9985):2422-31.
7. Ganter C, Aftosmes-Tobio A, Chuang E, Kwass JA, Land T, Davison KK, CORD Study
Group. Peer Reviewed: Lessons Learned by Community Stakeholders in the

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Massachusetts Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (MA-CORD) Project, 2013–
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8. Davison KK, Falbe J, Taveras EM, Gortmaker S, Kulldorff M, Perkins M, Blaine RE,
Franckle RL, Ganter C, Woo Baidal J, Kwass JA. Evaluation overview for the
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