Health Campaign - Part I

HEALTH CAMPAIGN - PART I Name: Grade Course: Tutor’s Name: (15th, March, 2011) Health Campaign Introduction Obesity is defined as the excessive accumulation of body fats or by individual having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher. The disease is one of the most common nutritional diseases in the industrialized countries posting an important concern to the public health. In United States the disease is the second actual cause of death with nearly one third of the adults being obese and percentage of overweight in children having doubled in the last two decades. Many factors contribute to obesity and these include: sex, age, genetic makeup well as environmental factors. This nutritional disease is associated with various diseases like the hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Therefore given the fact that this disease is a risk factor to more serious health risk, its prevention is still one of the most cost effective ways to reduce the morbidity and mortality that the condition causes. Controlling obesity is one of the highest priorities fro the public health practitioners in developed countries and this is attribute t the absence of safe, effective as well as accessible high risk approaches including drugs and surgery. Therefore attention has focused on alternatives like the use of public health campaigns on the issue. Anti-Obesity Campaign In united sates there exists several federal, state as well as local agencies that are tasked with addressing the issues of obesity and especially when it regards to the use of health campaigns in addressing the problem. Some of these agencies include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under DHHS, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Agricultural Library, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control, USDA, Vital Statistics Office as well as local health departments involved in the county or State Health Department. Models and systems used to determine and analyze obesity. The problem of obesity in the united states is determined and analyzed through the use of various systems and models which include the use of sources of data like the adapt obtained from managed care, disease registries and vital statistics. In order to help the public, state officials as well as the private sector partners in the health care provision the Agency fro healthcare research and quality produces annual data which is critical in decision making processes. The agency provides data on the following areas: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project( data on medial practice patterns, cost and quality of health services, outcomes of national, state as well as local market levels and on access to health care programs), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System(utilizes phone survey system to track health conditions and other risk behaviour in the united states since 1984) of , National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) and State vital statistics registries( tasked with maintenance of registries of all vital events that include, deaths, marriages, births, divorce and fetal deaths). One of the models that can be used to asses and analyses the problem of obesity in children of obesity is the Fishman’s hand –wrist analysis. It analyses childhood obesity and skeletal maturity through the determination whether increased body mass index is really associated with an accelerated skeletal maturation. The method to be used in the analysis is the use of skeletal ages of sampled children basically aged between nine and sixteen years. The model allows one to determine and analysis the difference between the chronologic age and the dental age against body mass index, age and sex. Target community The anti-obesity campaign targets children and this is attributed to the fact that overweight and obesity in children post significant public health problems in the united state. According to statistics the number of adolescents who are obese has tripled since the year 1980 a...