Childhood Obesity Trends: UK National Health Statistics

Introduction

Health Promotion is the process which includes public policies that address the health determinants in the society like housing, food, employment and others for ensuring better health care and support for the public. The importance of health promotion is that it improves the overall health scenario for the public as well as assists in reducing the number of deaths and prevalence of health complications in the society. In this assignment, the health promotion intervention proposed is the management of obesity in schools within the UK. This is because increased numbers of children in the UK are suffering from obesity due to lack of proper intake of meal and executing physical exercise (Abu-Farha et al. 2017). Since the children spend most of their time at school, thus executing health promotion would benefit to provide detailed information regarding obesity in the children in the UK to create change in their behaviour to lead healthy lives. In this health promotion, detailed background and context of obesity prevalence among children are to be discussed. Moreover, the plan for health promotion intervention is to be explained as well as evaluation of the health promotion plan is to be discussed.

Background and Context

In the UK, severe obesity has been reported to be faced by children. The NHS survey reported that nearly 28% of children of 2-15 years in England are suffering from obesity in 2016. Among them, 16% were only obese and the rest 12% were overweight being at the risk of obesity (fullfact.org, 2018). In Wales, 27% of the children of 4-5 years of age in 2016-17 were reported to be obese. In Scotland, 23% of the children of 4-5 years of age are reported to be obese whereas in Northern Ireland in the UK 23% of the children of 2-10 years and 29% of children within 11-15 years are reported to be obese (fullfact.org, 2018). Thus, the figures indicate that obesity among children has developed as a key issue within the UK as considerable number of children from 2-15 years are reported to be suffering from the health issues all over the UK.

The UK National Health Services reported that nearly 20.2% of children at year 6 is considered to be obese whereas among them 4.4% are severely obese indicating 26,000 children to be suffering from severe obesity (gov.uk, 2019). The National Child Measurement Programme organised in 2017-18 informed that in from children at 6 years with obesity in the UK has increased from 20% to 20.2% (commonslibrary.parliament.uk, 2019). This indicates that with progressing years the number of children affected by obesity in the UK is increasing. It informs that there is lack of proper support and awareness regarding the health issues due to which change in behaviour to lower the incidence of the health issue is not established making obesity health issues among the children in the country. The risk of obesity in the UK has been currently become an issue as in 2016 it is reported that in the past four years 35% overall rise in obesity among all individuals that is children as well as adults are reported (digital.nhs.uk, 2018). Thus, it has become a major health issue as proper considerable rise in the number of individuals affected by it is rising at a stiff rate within the UK.

The risk of obesity among children in the UK has risen due to increased intake of fast food and sugary drinks. This is evident as National Diet and Nutrition Survey inform that sugary drinks mainly accounts for 30-40% of the sugar intake in the body of the children in the UK who are within 10-11 years (luton.gov.uk, 2018). The fast-food intake leads children to become obese as they contain increased amount of carbohydrates, sugar and fats with fewer vitamins and minerals making the children intake high amount of unhealthy calories leading to their weight gain (Xue et al. 2016). The children in the UK are also found to execute less physical activity. This is evident as 1 in 3 children in England is reported to execute less than 30 minutes of physical exercise within a day (digital.nhs.uk, 2018). The less amount of physical exercise leads to increased obesity among children in the UK. This is because sedentary lifestyle leads the children unable to use extra body fat as energy making them get stored in the body adding to their overall weight (Sirico et al. 2018). Thus, it indicates that increased prevalence of obesity among the children in the UK are experienced as a result of increased fast food and sugar foods intake with less physical exercise. In the UK, the children on an average are found to send more than 25 hours a week of their time at primary and 27.5 hours a week in secondary schools for availing education and learning different skills (ncee.org, 2018). Thus, the health promotion is to be targeted to be performed in UK primary as well as secondary schools as in this way increased amount of time can be accessed to influence and educate the children regarding healthy eating and physical exercise to prevent obesity.

Plan for Intervention

Healthy Promotion Aim

The aim of the health promotion intervention is management of obesity prevalence among the children in the UK by performing the intervention in primary and secondary schools with the help of educational programs, personal counselling, curriculum development and policy improvement.

SMART Objectives

The objectives of the health promotion intervention include:

To inform regarding the adverse effects of obesity on the health of the children

To educate the children regarding the activities to be performed to avoid and prevent the risk of obesity

Approaches for the Health Promotion Intervention

The approaches to health promotion are to be determined for making effective intervention regarding health issues. The Beattie’s Health Promotion model informs four key approaches to be followed for making intervention which includes health persuasion, personal counselling, community development and legislative actions (Garnett et al. 2019). The health persuasion indicates the interventions that are directed at specific individuals which are led by healthcare professionals to make change in their activities (Whitehead, 2018). This indicates that in the current health promotion with the help of educational programs where causes of obesity along with health impacts of obesity are informed each of the children at primary and secondary schools are to be persuaded individually in making change in their actions. The personal counselling is making interventions to make individuals aware of the health issues faced due to their actions and helping them to create change in their behaviour (Fuxench et al. 2016). It indicates in the current health intervention the approach to be taken is inclusion of teachers in the educational program for obesity. This is because the teachers are trusted by the students and are able to personally interact with the students as they know their behavioural nature, in turn, making to act as effective personal counsellors for the children.

The community development is referred to the approaches taken within a community by identifying local health issues to take actions to resolve them (Schenk et al. 2019). In the current health promotion intervention, the curriculum development approach is to be implemented within the schools for the children. This is because it would make the children create change in their existing behaviour with the intervention of the school authorities even though they are not willing or intending to make the change for avoiding obesity. The legislative actions are referred to the approaches taken by professionals to create changes in policies and procedures to improve health condition of individuals (Clay, 2018). It indicates in the present health promotion intervention the approach would to make changes in the existing policies and procedures within the schools with the help of government and authorities. This is because the change in policies and procedures would provide better guidance to the teachers and other professionals within the schools regarding the way they are to act to lower the prevalence and effective management of obesity among the children in the UK. The Beattie’s Health Promotion is chosen to determine the approaches to health intervention this is because it delineates the basic strategies to be considered in planning the intervention (Blackie, 2019). Thus, model is chosen to determine the health promotion approaches in this case as it provided basic concept of the activities to be considered in planning the intervention.

The Tannahill Health Promotion Model informs three key approaches towards making health intervention which is determination of preventing measures, promoting positive health education and creating heath protection (O’Hara et al. 2016). The preventive measures are to be determined as it helps to avoid risk of the illness or disease (Sharma, 2016). Thus, it indicates that in the current health promotion the inclusion of information regarding the preventive measures related to obesity management is to be discussed. This is because it would make the children aware of the specific actions to be taken to avoid the risk of development of obesity. The positive health education approach informs that effective communication with the individuals is to be made to enhance their well-being along with preventing ill-health by improving their attitudes and knowledge (Raingruber, 2016). This indicates that in the health promotion regarding obesity the approach is to formulate the educational program in such a way so that it is able to make change within the attitudes and knowledge of the children regarding obesity. The health protection approach informs that safeguarding population is to be done with the help of inclusion of legislative, social or financial measure (Billiet et al. 2016). This indicates in the current health promotion activity for management of obesity the approach is to create effective changes within the curriculum of the school so that behaviour change in the children to prevent and management of obesity can be established. The advantage of using Tannahill Health Promotion Model is that it provides empowerment to the individuals regarding the way they are to develop control regarding their activities to ensure their health progress (Marotta and Mazzucco, 2017). Thus, the model is used in the study to determine the approaches for the health intervention as it assists to empower the children in deciding to change their activities which would support their improved health and make them avoid the development of obesity.

Intervention Strategy

On the basis of Beattie’s Health Promotion Model, the health persuasion, personal counselling, community development and legislative action are the approaches to be made (Garnett et al. 2019). The health persuasion in the mentioned health promotion of obesity can be created through the help of educational programs. The health education programs involve providing information regarding the causes, risk factors, preventive measures and others regarding any health issues top led the individuals or public learning about the reason of development of the disease and the way it can be prevented (Silver and Cronin, 2019). The health education programs to be developed in the study for creating health promotion related to obesity among the children in the UK within the primary and secondary schools is strategized to include information regarding the nature of healthy foods to be included in their diets. Moreover, it is determined that in the education programs the children are to be educated about the activities that lead to obesity and the way it can be changed along with the importance of physical exercise in preventing obesity.

Personal counselling is another strategy to be used in making intervention regarding obesity management for children in UK schools. In this respect, the school nurses are to be involved who are to be trained regarding the way personal counselling of the students in the classroom are to be made so that they realise the bad effects of obesity and develop improved attitude to make changes in their behaviour to prevent obesity (Schroeder and Smaldone, 2017). Thus, in the mentioned health promotion intervention the school nurses are to personally inform children regarding the impact and causes of obesity as well as to resolve it through personal counselling. This is to make the children in the UK schools develop self-awareness from the information regarding the habits that are making them be at risk of obesity and the way they can resolve them to have improved quality health condition. The changes in the school curriculum for preventing certain health issues is required as it helps the students to make alterations in their behaviour and way of executing actions with effective support from the authorities (Gray et al. 2016). Thus, the current health promotion intervention is going to include the strategy of creating changes in the school curriculum where the school authorities are to include compulsory physical exercises classes each day for the students. It is to make the children remain physically active in turn avoiding the risk of obesity.

On the basis of Tannahill Health Promotion Model, the preventive measures and positive health education regarding obesity is to be informed through the use of educational program intervention strategy. The preventive measures to be informed through the education program for the children in the UK is that they are to avoid intake of fast food, execute physical exercise and avoid increased intake of sugary foods. This is because sugary foods include increased amount of sugar which is a carbohydrate that later turns into fat in the body leading the body to gain weight. In addition, the increased sugar affects the body to create insulin resistance that raises the blood sugar level, in turn, leading the individual to skip hunger and develop increased craving for more intake of sugar foods (Stanhope, 2016). This leads the individual to gain bodyweight making them eventually turn obese.

Plan for Evaluation

The evaluation approach for the proposed Health Promotion created for obesity management among the children in the UK would include process evaluation and impact/outcome evaluation. The process evaluation involves the aspects of health promotion that includes assessing the reach of the promotion, analysing the level of implementation of the program and determining the potential issues to be resolved in successful delivery of the health promotion (DiFulvio et al. 2016). The process evaluation approach is to be used for mentioned health promotion to examine the success of its reach to children in different primary and secondary schools in the UK, analyse the extent to which the program is implemented to create change in the everyday actives for coping obesity among children and determine the issues to be resolved in making the program successful at the end. Thus, process evaluation is to be used in health promotion intervention so that changes during its execution can be determined along with its efficiency in delivering success to determine alterations in strategies to be made for the health promotion to be effectively successful at the end (Sanchez et al. 2017). The impact/outcome evaluation approach is used for measuring the short-term as well as the long-term impact of the health promotion on the target individuals (Breuer et al. 2016). This indicates that through impact/outcome evaluation approach the validity and efficiency of the proposed health promotion to manage and prevent obesity among the children in the UK can be determined at short-term and long-term level.

The techniques used for process evaluation approach of health promotion include assessment of program documents of intervention, survey, participant observation, in-depth interviews and others. The assessment of program documents of health promotion helps to determine the way the intervention is determined to be executed and the probable issues to be faced in implementing the intervention (Newson et al. 2018). This is because the assessment of the documents informs the positive aspects and the faults to be rectified presently in the processing of the health promotion intervention to ensure its success. Thus, to evaluate the proposed health promotion the assessment of the process document for educational programs, executing personal counselling and curriculum development is to de done to determine the changes required to ensure the success of the intervention regarding obesity management and prevention among UK children. The success of the reach of the proposed health promotion is to be determined through surveying the schools. This is because survey is easy and less time-consuming method to determine statistical data to be compared to determine success of any intervention (Shih et al. 2016). Thus, in the proposed health promotion, survey during its implementation process is to be done. This is to determine in how many schools the health promotion has been reached and the data is to be compared with the target number of schools determined to be reached through the process to analyse the success of reach of the intervention.

The techniques implemented for impact/outcome evaluation of health promotion includes the use of feedback, survey questionnaires, post-intervention interview and others. The feedback is referred to the technique in which information regarding the reactions of the performance of an intervention is collected (Guerra et al. 2016). It indicates that through feedback from the children as well as their parents about the proposed health promotion intervention regarding obesity management among UK children the success of the outcome of the intervention can be determined. This is because the feedback is going to inform whether or not proposed health promotion intervention was informative enough to perform properly for educating the children in making changes in their behaviour and food habits to prevent and avoid obesity. The post-intervention interview in health promotion evaluation helps to inform the changes in attitudes and behaviour of the target individuals (Whelan et al. 2019). Thus, the post-intervention interview of the proposed health promotion is to be done to evaluate the impact of its success. This is because in the interview process the children through direct questioning can lead the evaluator to determine whether or not they have developed change in their attitudes towards fast foods and physical exercise to prevent obesity which was one of the objectives of the intervention.

The survey questionaries are referred to set of question used to gather, aggregate and analyse the response of participants (Blake et al. 2017). In evaluating the impact/outcome of the proposed health promotion, the survey questionnaires are to be used where data from the target group are to be gathered and analyse before as well as after the intervention. This is to develop comparison between the data to identify whether or not the health promotion intervention is successful to raise proper awareness regarding obesity as well as change in attitudes and behaviour of the children in the UK to ensure their improved health. It is evident as the success of the impact of the intervention would indicate more children in the UK to show positive response in changing their lifestyle of having fast food and reduced exercise and vice-versa.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that obesity prevalence in the UK is rosining at a steady rate for the children in the UK and it is going to adversely affect their health. Thus, the health promotion activity for obesity management and prevention among the children in the UK is to be developed and it is to be implemented in primary and secondary schools. The approaches to be used in making health promotion is determined to be derived by analysing the Beattie's Health Promotion model and Tanahill's Health Promotion model. The intervention strategies include personal counselling, educational programs, changes in curriculum development in schools and the implication of improved policies at schools for health management of children. The process evaluation and impact/outcome evaluation approaches are to be used. The methods to be used in evaluating the proposed health promotion includes survey, interview, assessment of process documents of intervention and others. In order to ensure better success of the health promotion, it is suggested that experienced health professionals are to be included. Moreover, it is recommended that the school nurses are to be specially trained and well-informed of the entire process of intervention so that they can properly act to ensure success of the intervention. The intervention is recommended to be developed in such a way so that it can be implemented in inclusive educational schools to create obesity management and prevention for all nature of children in the UK.

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