Author: Sana Rehman
Part A: Impact of Childhood Obesity at the Level of Individual, Community and Population
Childhood obesity has become the most concerning issue of
the current time. The action plan is needed to prevent childhood obesity in
rural Queensland. For developing the action plan, the adverse impact of
childhood obesity is crucial to identify. The impact of childhood obesity, key
areas to make changes, and action plan are mentioned below.
According to the 2016 census, the ratio of Aboriginal and
Torres Islander children in the rural island is 4.0% (Queensland Government
Statistician’s Office, 2016). In the recent five years, the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander residents of Queensland rural area ratio has been
increased to 19.7% (30,658) (Sherriff et al., 2019). The growing proportion of
aboriginal and Torres Strait islander is adversely impacting the health
conditions of the general population and the children’s as well. The ever
increasing ratio is developing economic issue to meet the necessities of the
population, and the most prevalent issue which has been observed is childhood
obesity.
Childhood obesity is very prevalent among Aboriginal and Terror Strait Australian Children living in rural Queensland (Thurber, Dobbins, Neeman, Banwell, & Banks, 2017). In particular, the burden of disproportionate morbidity and mortality are very common among obsess children’s of rural Queen land (Phillips, Morrell, Taylor, Daniels, 2014). In 2012 to 2013 the one-third of Aboriginal and Strait Islander child (age range 12-14) estimated to be overweight (Phillips, Morrell, Taylor, & Daniels, 2014: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013). The impact of childhood obesity is alarming for physical, emotional, psychological and social life (Schwarzman et al., 2019).
The physical impact of childhood obesity liked to develop type 2
diabetes. It adversely affects the life expectancy of the child for up to 27 years.
Childhood obesity adversely affects the emotional well-being of the child, and
they start to display inappropriate emotion in a diverse situation. The recent
researches have demonstrated the positive correlation between childhood obesity
and emotional problems (Phillips, Morrell, Taylor, & Daniels, 2014).
The psychological impact of physical obesity includes low
self-esteem, negative self-concept, and anxiety and body dysmorphic symptoms.
The literature suggested that childhood obesity is positivity associated with
the psychological disturbance, which may deteriorate the personal, social and
occupational life of the children (Schwarzman et al., 2019).
The social impact of childhood obesity adversely affect
the occupational functioning of the child as further leads to isolation and
leads to much antisocial behaviour (Chung et al., 2016). Therefore for the
emotional, psychological, and behavioural well-being of the children, their
physical fitness is crucial.
The socio-economic factors determine the prospect of any area. The lack of nutrients and medical facilities leads to poor health and low life expectancy (Sherriff et al., 2019). The environment of rural Queensland poses lack of health and nutrient facility. These deprivation are leading to childhood obesity and related issues. The Aboriginal and terror strait island child experience substantial hurdles if rural Queensland. Therefore there is dire need to devise a plan for changing the alarming current condition.
B: Key areas where change can be made to reduce the impact of health issues
The risk factor for childhood obesity can be seen in three clusters such as biological, socio-economic and behavioural. Firstly, according to the biological perspective, obesity has some predisposed effect. According to researches, obsess parents are more at risk of having obese children’s compared to slim ones. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, Childhood obesity is interlinked with the poor socio-economic condition of children living in rural Queensland.
The food and health care deprivation among
children’s of rural areas are the primary determinants of childhood obesity.
According to recent data, the proportion of childhood obesity is significantly
correlated with disadvantages background (Schwarzman et al., 2019). The lack of
adequate socio-economic facilities leads to childhood obesity.
As the rural areas posses with the least medical and nutrients facility and children with low socio-economic status bound to buy cheap and unhealthy foods (Kim et al., 2017). Furthermore, the lack of adequate medical facilities also contributes to developing health-related issues. The two main areas which have been identifying to make change are unhealthy food leads and lack of medical facilities in rural areas of Queensland. Thirdly, unhealthy behaviours are also very strong determents of childhood obesity (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). The children often commit unhealthy behaviour due to inadequate rural environment. Therefore, the prevention of childhood obesity is essential by making changes in these areas.
The change in
reducing childhood obesity can be made by following a few steps. Initially,
childhood obesity can be curbed among children of rural areas of queen land
through policymaking, considering the social-economic context. The Government
should take collaborative steps with the Aboriginal community for reducing
nutrition deficiency and other related health issues. More actions should be
taken to promote the Minjilang Health and Nutrition Project (Northern Territory;
1989-199029) in rural Queensland for the aboriginal and terror islander
children (Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). The Government should
facilitate the peoples of rural Queen land with basic health care measures.
There is dire need to hire more health care staff, funding aids, and workforce training in rural areas so that childhood obesity can be control. Furthermore, another is that needs attention to children behaviour. The children’s are indulged in the poor behavioural chain of food intake and routine habit. In order to break their food intake and unhealthy health habit chain, health equality policies should be promoted (Guzys, Brown, Halcomb, & Amp; Whitehead, 2017).
The aboriginal and terror island children
do not get equal, housing, medical, education and social facilities. Unequal
rights lead to unhygienic or unhealthy behaviour. The implication of the Looma
Healthy Lifestyle Project (Western Australia; initiated in 1993 and still
ongoing) is needed for childhood obesity prevention (Schwarzman et al., 2019).
The obesity itself is not that dangerous, but a risk factor for causing
multiple deadly diseases. Therefore the prevention programs are essential to
developing.
C: Action plans to address the health issues
The best nursing practice is primarily associated with promoting health and fabric in the community as the current issue of childhood obesity in rural Queensland is very prevalent (Queensland Government Statistician’s Office, 2016). Here the role of a registered nurse is very crucial to develop health-related behaviour to prevalent the proportion of childhood obesity. The health promotion empowers the infected individual, family and community to develop insight by educating and developing skill to combat against disease (Edelman, Mandle, &Kudzma, 2014).
The targeted area
that needs change to overcome obesity in rural Queensland is health-related
behaviour. The obsess children of rural areas found to be indulged in health
risk behaviour such as cheap and malnutrient foods, improper daily routine,
unhygienic habits and residential issues (Fleming & Parker, 2019). The
issues should be resolve at border spectrum as Government and policymaker
should invest their time and expenditures to improve the condition of the
children’s. The Government and policymakers would indulge in this action plan
and informed about the necessities of the medical staff, financial aid, funding
and other related things. As far as the action plan for the nursing perspective
is concerned, by taking multiple steps the childhood obesity can be
control.
The very first step of an action plan for the promotion of health and the prevention of childhood obesity is the regular assessment of the children. The assessment includes diet, sedentary behaviours and physical activity. The second step is the assessment of family environment such as parenting, acceptance, rejection, and quality time etc. The obtained information from this initial assessment would provide sufficient details to design an intervention plan for the children. On the basis of these assessments, it can be concluded that intervention should be universally applied or individually.
What
population should be targeted, such as children, parents, caregivers, teachers
and neighbours?
In the current issue of obesity, children will be asses
on a regular basis for identifying their health habits, including nutrients,
sedentary lifestyles, and physical activity. The cheap and unhealthy food and
lack of physical activity will be reduced following behaviour modification
technique. The children will be educated through stories, video clips and other
interesting activities about how malnutirents food and lack of health
activities leads to childhood obesity. The parents or caretaker of the children’s
would also be psycho-educate about unhealthy health habits and would assist in
developing health-related behaviour to prevent obesity among children’s. The
effectivity of the action plan would be assessed through post-assessment. This
action plan would help in controlling the obesity issues in rural
Queensland.
Conclusion
The childhood obesity
has arisen to an alarming extent in rural Queensland, but with appropriate aid
and action plan, the issue can be controlled. Further longitudinal researchers,
case studies and systematic reviews are crucial to conducting for the
identification of the latest epidemiological issues so that more intervention
plan can be designed.