After working with my preceptor to assess the existing organizational policies, I have created a list of various measurable outcomes for the capstone project intervention. The intervention for this capstone project is the adoption of lifestyle health education to mitigate obesity among children. Health education is critical in the development of appropriate knowledge and development of awareness about childhood obesity management. The following are the measurable outcomes developed.
Development of Awareness on Managing Childhood Obesity
One of the primary outcomes anticipated from this project’s intervention is the development of awareness among children and their parents to seek a healthy lifestyle and mitigate obesity. Health education on obesity management will also empower obese children and their parents to take individual responsibility to ensure a healthy lifestyle (Morales Camacho et al., 2019).
Enhancement of Emotional and Mental Wellbeing
Obese and overweight children often face stigmatization, social exclusion, and bullying. In turn, they suffer loneliness, social detachment, and neglect, causing emotional and mental health issues such as poor self-confidence, poor health, and reduced self-esteem (Verduci et al., 2022). This project is essential in mitigating childhood obesity. Attaining a healthy weight will increase self-esteem, self-confidence, and reduce in risky behaviors. Additionally, a healthy weight will eliminate psychological problems associated with obesity such as stigmatization, discrimination, and depression.
Enhancement of Academic Performance
The stigmatization, social exclusion, and bullying experienced by obese children tend to adversely affect their academic performance and participation in class. Ideally, obesity is associated with poor academic performance. It is expected that the educational intervention in this project will help obese children to attain a healthy weight and avoid physical, mental, and emotional health. As result, their self-esteem and self-confidence will improve and eventually reflect on their academic performance.
Reduction in Childhood Obesity Rates
Childhood obesity is attributed to several factors including physical inactivity and poor nutrition. The implementation of health education will help obese children and their parents to have healthy and informed health choices. Health education will raise awareness of health choices associated with obesity and empower the victims to adopt healthy lifestyle habits such as a healthy diet, more physical activity, and coping strategies to maintain behavioral changes critical to obesity reduction (Faienza et al., 2020).
Conclusion
The implementation of health education intervention is vital to curbing the increasing rates of childhood obesity. It also helps in lowering the associated impacts and complications in the United States. Therefore, it is important to take action and pertinent policies to structure health education to achieve the desired outcomes.
References
Faienza, M. F., Chiarito, M., Molina-Molina, E., Shanmugam, H., Lammert, F., Krawczyk, M., … & Portincasa, P. (2020). Childhood obesity, cardiovascular and liver health: a growing epidemic with age. World Journal of Pediatrics, 16(5), 438-445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-020-00341-9
Morales Camacho, W. J., Molina Díaz, J. M., Plata Ortiz, S., Plata Ortiz, J. E., Morales Camacho, M. A., & Calderón, B. P. (2019). Childhood obesity: Aetiology, comorbidities, and treatment. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 35(8), e3203. https://doi.org/10.1002/dmrr.3203
Verduci, E., Di Profio, E., Fiore, G., & Zuccotti, G. (2022). Integrated approaches to combatting childhood obesity. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1159/000524962
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