Health Promotion Project for Childhood Obesity

Health Promotion Project
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Health Promotion Project
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Childhood obesity is a serious public health issue in America. The rate of overweight or obese children and adolescents has risen since 2010. According to a 2018 survey by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the prevalence of childhood obesity has doubled in the past three decades. 1 in 5 children and adolescents in America are obese and according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity prevalence surged to even higher levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC has stated that obesity prevalence from the years 2017 to 2022 was 12.7% among children who were between two and five years of age, 20.7% among children who were between six and 11 years of age, and 22.2% among children between 12 and 19 years of age (CDC, 2019b). The prevalence of childhood obesity differed across race or ethnic groups with members of minority communities recording the highest obesity rates: the obesity prevalence among Hispanic children was 26.2%, Black children was 24.8%, Non-Hispanic White children was 16.6%, and Asian-American children was 9%.
Childhood obesity also differed by socioeconomic status with obesity rates increasing across all age groups and genders as the level of education of the head of household decreased. The prevalence of childhood obesity was indirectly proportioned to parents’ education level across all age groups and all genders. Furthermore, obesity prevalence increased with a decrease in household income. According to a 2018 survey by the CDC, obesity prevalence among children from families with an income no more than 130% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) was 19%, for children from families with an income greater than 130% but less than 350% of the FPL was 20%, while children from families with an income greater than 350% of the FPL was 11% (Yalanis, 2022). Childhood obesity is associated with higher risks of mortality, social problems, psychological problems, and adult obesity. Some of the health issues associated with childhood obesity include fatty liver disease, hypertension, infertility, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems, poor self-image, depression, and suicide (CDC, 2022).
The social determinants of health that contribute to the issue of childhood obesity include the head of the household’s education level, family income, physical environment, social support, and access to healthy food options. Parents play a critical role in determining their children’s food choices and therefore lower educational attainment in caregivers contributes to higher obesity prevalence. Caregivers or parents who lack adequate knowledge of healthy food choices increase their children’s risk of obesity (Robinson et al., 2020). Living below the poverty line is also associated with higher childhood obesity rates. Families living in poverty lack the resources to purchase nutritious foods and children tend to eat unhealthy meals more often than not, which leads to higher risk of obesity. Living in a single-parent household has also been shown to be a determinant of childhood obesity. Single-parent households have lower incomes and therefore tend to consume cheaper and unhealthy food, which leads to higher risk of obesity.
Another social determinant is the neighborhood environment, which includes several subcomponents such as farmers markets, fast-food, and walkable areas. Neighborhoods with few farmers markets and higher distribution of fast food establishments have a higher prevalence of obesity. Farmers markets are essential because they not only increase access to fresh healthy foods but also make them cheap for the community. Having numerous fast-food establishments in an area with few farmers markets is a significant contributor to childhood obesity. Similarly, neighborhoods with few walkable areas or high levels of criminal activity and insecurity tend to discourage children from participating in physical activity, a factor that contributes to higher incidence of obesity (Cleveland et al., 2023). Another social determinant of childhood obesity prevalence is social support. Various studies have shown that overweight and obese children require social support to overcome the different barriers of exercising or dieting (Delaney & Byrd-Bredbenner, 2022; Heredia et al., 2016). Children require the support of their parents, peers, and educators to gain mastery of their eating habits or change their sedentary lifestyle: the level of social capital determines the success of intervention components such as healthy eating, exercising, or health education.
Children require parental or school supervision in terms of food choices; peer or parental support to overcome the psychological barriers of being ridiculed, sticking to a healthy diet, or wanting to lose weight quickly; and parental or school support in physical exercise and planning a dietary program. On the whole, children from low-income families or living in food deserts (e.g., neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food choices) have a high risk of becoming obese (Key et al., 2023). Moreover, having a caregiver or parent with low education attainment or not having adequate social capital to support dieting or exercising is also linked to a higher risk of childhood obesity (Key et al., 2023).
The health promotion project will employ Pender’s health promotion model (HPM) to plan for and change unhealthy behaviors that increase childhood obesity rates among elementary students. Pender’s HPM is based on the social cognitive theory which focuses on changing cognitive-perceptual factors (e.g., self-efficacy, perceived social benefits, and barriers to change) to increase public participation in healthy behaviors. The HPM was chosen for the health promotion project because it entails variables that provide a rich source of interventional approaches. For instance, Pender’s HPM model focuses on three areas: individuals characteristics and experiences, behavior-specific cognitions and affect, as well as behavioral outcomes (Khodaveisi et al., 2017). The health promotion project will focus on modifying personal factors including biological, psychological, and socio-cultural characteristics to reduce the prevalence of obesity and related complications among elementary students. It will do this by addressing community members’ perceived barriers to healthy behaviors (e.g., healthy eating, physical activity, and regular weight screening) as well as improving their self-efficacy in dieting and exercising.
The health promotion project will employ interpersonal influences (e.g., social support and behavior modeling) together with situational influences (e.g., personal cognitions that support healthy behaviors) to help overweight children in elementary school to commit to behavioral change (e.g., eating healthy, exercising, and going for regular diabetes screening). Pender’s HPM has found success in many other nutritional programs that are meant to improve the diet and physical activity of overweight and obese individuals. For instance, Khodaveisi et al. (2017) investigated the efficacy of Pender’s HPM in increasing healthy behavior among overweight and obese women in Iran. The authors determined that the model not only increased nutritional behavior between before and after applying the intervention but also heightened participants perceived self-efficacy, positive interpersonal and situational influences, perceived benefits, commitment to action and behavior-related affect, while reducing perceived barriers....