Preventing Childhood Obesity in America
Joseph Giralt
Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing
N102: Nursing Care of Patients with Common Health Problems
Spring 2015
Preventing Childhood Obesity in America Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity amongst children has more than doubled in the last 30 years. (2014) “In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.” (CDC, 2014) When focusing on the African American and Hispanic communities, the incidence of overweight and obesity rises to nearly 40%. (Let’s Move!, 2010) The risks and consequences of obesity in childhood are both immediate and long-term. Immediate consequences …show more content…
Sessions, lasting forty minutes, began with either a card or pile-sorting exercise. Children brainstormed foods or activities to generate the set of information for the rest of the exercise. Participants sat on the floor in circles with visual prompts and cards placed in the center. The children were encouraged to move around during the exercises and move the cards as they categorized their responses. The concept of “yummy” was introduced and children went round-robin, calling out what foods they thought of as being yummy. The children were then asked why they considered the foods as such. Next, the concept of “yucky” was introduced and same procedure was followed. Children were then asked to further define the foods as “good” or “not good for you.” The rest of the session focused on activity. Children described activities that were “fun” and “not fun” and then further separated them into “makes you move” or “not moving …show more content…
Interventions for students in first grade or younger would be successful when promoting healthy children’s choices by reinforcing food preferences that are healthy choices. When considering children older than second grade, progress towards healthier choices would best be served by addressing the slant on the yucky foods. The innovative participant-geared study demonstrated that involving children as partners in research yielded a body of knowledge that reflected their perceptions. Since the study was performed in only one school district with a distinct ethnic composition, additional assessments of other groups of children would need to be carried out before making generalizations. More school districts and universities should collaborate; together they can perhaps modify perceptions and be mediators of change in health behavior. Nurses can look to the study by Meininger et al., and be reminded that they, themselves, can serve as role models of healthy behavior and help educate in fighting the battle against childhood
Joseph Giralt
Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing
N102: Nursing Care of Patients with Common Health Problems
Spring 2015
Preventing Childhood Obesity in America Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity amongst children has more than doubled in the last 30 years. (2014) “In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.” (CDC, 2014) When focusing on the African American and Hispanic communities, the incidence of overweight and obesity rises to nearly 40%. (Let’s Move!, 2010) The risks and consequences of obesity in childhood are both immediate and long-term. Immediate consequences …show more content…
Sessions, lasting forty minutes, began with either a card or pile-sorting exercise. Children brainstormed foods or activities to generate the set of information for the rest of the exercise. Participants sat on the floor in circles with visual prompts and cards placed in the center. The children were encouraged to move around during the exercises and move the cards as they categorized their responses. The concept of “yummy” was introduced and children went round-robin, calling out what foods they thought of as being yummy. The children were then asked why they considered the foods as such. Next, the concept of “yucky” was introduced and same procedure was followed. Children were then asked to further define the foods as “good” or “not good for you.” The rest of the session focused on activity. Children described activities that were “fun” and “not fun” and then further separated them into “makes you move” or “not moving …show more content…
Interventions for students in first grade or younger would be successful when promoting healthy children’s choices by reinforcing food preferences that are healthy choices. When considering children older than second grade, progress towards healthier choices would best be served by addressing the slant on the yucky foods. The innovative participant-geared study demonstrated that involving children as partners in research yielded a body of knowledge that reflected their perceptions. Since the study was performed in only one school district with a distinct ethnic composition, additional assessments of other groups of children would need to be carried out before making generalizations. More school districts and universities should collaborate; together they can perhaps modify perceptions and be mediators of change in health behavior. Nurses can look to the study by Meininger et al., and be reminded that they, themselves, can serve as role models of healthy behavior and help educate in fighting the battle against childhood