1. Community Description
The field work of the research paper was performed in the Queens County, New York where I live. The Queens County is located in the eastern part of the city of New York and it is considered to cover the largest area covering an area of 283 square kilometers. It is also second largest in terms of population size. Queens County is geographically located in the Long Island western part together with its neighboring county that is Brooklyn. The county is an urban area which consists of diverse ethnic groups cutting across all parts of the world. Its population size is estimated to be above 2.2 million people comprising of 46% of those who are born outside the county. This population size is made up of more than 100 different types of nations with their residents speaking more than 138 varied languages.
The population of the Queens County consists of whites, blacks or the African American, the Asians and other small races like the Hispanic or those from Latino origin. The most common language used by the people residing in Queens County are the following; English, Spanish, indo European and Asian languages. The social environment of Queens County can be well elaborated through its established culture. Although Queen County has previously not been considered as a hub for any significant movement of the artistic nature, it is known to be a home for great artistes such as Francis Coppola, Robert Mapplethorpe and also Paul Simon. Queens County is known to foster culture particularly one of the African American through establishment of a poetry theatre about the Africans. In addition, the county has a theatre company called black spectrum which caters for the blacks living in Queens County. Queens County is also a home of music since it is known to be a significant centre for jazz music since jazz legends such as Charlie parker and Louis Armstrong who went to Queens in 1940s due to segregation they suffered in other parts of the state. Currently, queens county is popularly known to be a home for great rappers in the hip hop industry such as Nas, Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J and 50 Cent.
Queens County also consists of various museums as well as cultural institutions which are known to be serving different communities. These institutions are known to be representing many disciplines ranging from historical nature to scientific nature, as well as art galleries and graffiti exhibitions.
2. A Community Genogram /Profile
3. Discussion of the health concern
In this context, obesity which is my fieldwork study health concern basically refers to a health condition in which the victim has a lot of fat in their bodies. Obesity is merely different from being overweight. This is because the later refers to a body condition which causes on to weigh too much. An overweight body condition may results from a person having extra body muscle, water, and bones and even having a lot of fat in the body. These two terms, that is, obesity and overweight refers to a situation in which the weight of a person may be considered to be unhealthy with regards to that person’s height (Bouchard, et al, 2010).
3.1 Some of the causes of obesity
The weight of a person is usually determined by the balance that exists in between the amount of calorie that a person consumes in relation to that person's energy expenditure. In case a person consumes more amount of calorie than the amount that person’s body can either burns or metabolizes then such a person will ultimately gain more weight as his/her body will hence have a storage of the extra energy amount in form of fat. Similarly, in case a person consumes less amount of calorie that the amount his/her body metabolizes then such a person ultimately loses his/her weight. Hence, it has been concluded that the most significant obesity causes results from either too much eating or even lack of good physical activities (Parízková, 2005). Usually the body weight of a human being emanates from the genetics, the metabolism process, the environment one lives in, the human beings behaviour as well as his or her culture. These causes of obesity in human beings can be elaborated as follows;
Human beings genetics; those people whose parents have suffered the obese condition previously are also more likely to get obese. People’s genetics mainly affect those hormones that are commonly involved in the regulation of fat in the human beings body. For instance, the deficiency of the leptin hormones in the body is one of the genetic related causes of obesity. Basically, the production of the leptin hormones occurs in the human beings fat cells as well as in the placenta. The leptin hormones normally controls the weight of the human beings body since this hormone send signals to the human being body alerting it to consume less food usually when the storage of the fat in the body is very high.
excessive eating; eating too much food causes the human beings body to gain more weight mostly when one consumes diet which contains a high content of fat. Food substances which are of high density of energy are those that have high content of either fat or even sugar. These types of food substances contain high content of calories essentially in very small food amount. Studies that have previously been carried out have depicted that those diets which have high content of fat are the ones that mainly contribute to gain of weight in the human beings body (Nnakwe, N. E. 2009).
Consumption of diet rich in high content of the simple carbohydrates; The consumption of the simple carbohydrates such as sugars, soft drinks, beer or wine are the major contributors of the human beings weight gain since these types of carbohydrates are easily absorbed in the human beings bloodstreams compared to the complex carbohydrates such as grains, raw fruits, pasta or vegetables. Other causes of obesity to human beings includes; the people’s eating frequency, the rate of metabolism process with regard to the gender and age of the people, lack of proper physical activities, the medications such as contraceptives high blood pressures as well as antihistamines medications, people’s psychological factors such as their emotions, anger, sadness, boredom or stress and finally obesity results from such diseases as insulin resistance, Cushing’s syndrome or hypothyroidism (Rao, G. 2006).
4. Description of the population of interest
The population of the interest that has been greatly affected by obesity is mainly the school aged children living in the queen county. The main purpose of this study fieldwork was to carry out a research on the prevalence estimate of obesity amongst the school-aged children residing in the queen county.
Generally, the effects of obesity are commonly linked to other health inequalities of the Queens county population. Mainly the Asian children are considered to be Four times obese when compared to the white children (Wallace, B. C., & Columbia University, 2008). In the Queen County just like any other counties or countries in the world, the county has experienced tremendous increase in obesity prevalence amongst the school-aged children. Carrying out a cross national, state or even local level comparisons of the prevalence of obesity has been faced by very major challenges. Amongst these challenges is the lack of sample representation in the county as well as the differences that arises out of the study designs. The differences arise out of the means that can be used in obtaining the heights and the corresponding weights of the children. Other differences include the system of classification employed in determining whether a school- aged child is obese or not as well as the gender and the ages differences arising from the sample of the school aged children used in the study. According to gender it has been observed that girls are more prevalence to obesity compared to boy in addition those of older age are more prevalent to obesity than the younger ones (Whitacre et al, 2009).
5. Description of the community resources and partners
There are many community linked interventions which have been established successfully in Queens County to cater for matters relating to obesity condition. The most influential community program is the program on healthy hearty initiated by St Vincent hospital which receives financial support from program of healthy heart of the state of New York. It works with employers from various counties such as Kings, New York, Richmond and Queens who work together in creating wellness programs at worksites and also coming up with more opportunities enhancing physical activity and consumption of healthy diet at various worksites with a capacity of 24000 employees. Some of the worksites had the following results.
i. A partnership of two companies came up with a program of negotiating discounts derived from companies that offer insurance services as results arising directly from participating in the health program.
ii. A program for managing weight from a worksite led to at least all individuals having weight loss and most of them testifying that that they were consuming a lot of fruits as well as vegetables.
iii. One specific worksite had individuals who dropped their blood pressure level by an average of ten points after a period of a year of undergoing a program involving self monitoring.
iv. A lot of workers who were first timers in purchasing some shares in agricultural institutions that were community sponsored reported to have an increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables.
v. Another two worksites credited their program by saving an employee life from serious injuries since they could take immediate action in seeking an emergency care after detecting an enormous blood pressure when they were participating in a monitoring program relating to blood pressure.
C. Diagnosis
Obesity in children in diagnosed by doctors by calculation of the child’s BMI and determining where it is falling in relation to the growth chart of national BMI. Therefore BMI assists in helping one to determine if the child has excess weight his/her age as well as the height. By use of the growth chart, the doctor then determines the percentile of the child.
In diagnosing obesity in children some health concerns are not addressed. These aspects are at times considered to be less obvious. For example, other than talking on sedentary way of living an eating unhealthy diet, issues relating to family and hereditary factors as causes of obesity in children are not taken into details at times. It is already proven that children whose parents are suffering from obesity have more chances of getting obesity. This shows genetic factors as contributing to obesity and hence parents should take proper care to themselves so as not to give birth to children who are obese (Rao, G. 2006).
It is also found that the parents as well as their children do not report cases on negativity of social interactions with other children and low levels of self esteem and depression in children with obesity (Marzluff, J. M. 2008).
D. Outcomes Identification
Amongst the ways that have been suggested which can lead to the prevention or treatment of obesity in the school- aged children are; encouraging these children to participate in the physical activities as well as decreasing the number of times the school-aged children view their television.
E. Planning
1. Recommendation on the nursing actions to improve the health concern
Nursing actions in prevention of children’s obesity cover a wide range of various critical factors. It is recommendable for nurses to gather the information necessary on method of prevention that can suit the child, his/her family, culture and environmental factors. The possible nursing intervention strategy for prevention of obesity in children may involve strategies on health promotion such as forming dancing classes or those strategies on protection such as discouraging consumption of fatty foods.
It is very appropriate to work in community enabled projects as a nurse since the intervention strategies are not affected by culture or social class and therefore one is able in influencing a significant number of children in a community. Furthermore, nurses can use some tools regarding practices that are evidence based to enable them come up with programs that are well planned and evaluated.
2. Explanation of how nurses might work with the community and the population of interest to improve the health concern.
On working with other nurses in improving conditions of obesity in children, it is important to employ prevention activities of both primary and secondary level. The primary level helps to promote the health condition as well as protecting it. It involves prevention of the problem before it occurs. It works well at community level and also significant in creating developmental assets that children can use to promote their health, for instance, encouraging the children to participate in physical activities such as sports or dances.
We can also use activities involving secondary prevention where problems are detected and dealt with during their early stages. Nurses use secondary prevention measures when the problem has already occurred prior to the appearing of signs as well as symptoms. This method is effective because obesity risk factors are common (Kelly, 2012).
3. Discussion of the potential public and private partnerships that could be formed to implement the recommendations
In implementing the recommendations, as a nurse I can work with the government hospitals to create awareness on child obesity. It is also important to work with institutions that offer recreational facilities so that it will be possible to get a good number of children to participate in campaign for fighting obesity. Working together in social projects such as those initiated by churches also is viable as well as working together with companies and NGO’s which can help in financing.
4. Discussion of the overall objective(s) for activities implementation
The overall objective of implementing prevention activities is to create awareness on obesity and its health effects by educating the parties involved by research data on the causes, effects and methods on how to treat and prevent obesity.
5. A timeline for expected outcomes
F. Evaluation
In evaluating the number of the school aged children who failed to respond to the study fieldwork, I compared the height in relation to the weight to those who responded to the study. The study also compared the respondent’s attempts of losing weight with the perceptions of their body image by the other school-aged children. To evaluate the root cause of weight loss the respondents were requested to explain what they were doing whether on dieting or the physical activities which had caused the weight loss. The evaluation process was carried out through use of questionnaires that were evenly distributed to the school-aged children living in Queen County.
G. Conclusions
In conclusions, the prevention as well the treatment of obesity as our health concern mainly on the school-aged children requires joint effort of the stakeholders and other aspects involved. In this study, it will require the intervention of those schools and families that the victims belong in. Such interventions should be in line with social-cultural changes in order to ultimately sustain and also enhance the benefits. The strategies implanted with aim of preventing obesity in school aged children will require combined effort from stakeholders such as the medical practitioners, school teachers, health officers, parents, food manufactures ,the media, planners of school sports and also leaders among others. a favorable environment which encourages consumption of health diets as well as active living through physical activities is also critical in reinforcing these measures implemented for obesity prevention. All in all if these strategies are well implemented it will be easy for the people in making decisions that leads to healthy living.
Works Cited
Bouchard, C., & Katzmarzyk, P. T. (2010). Physical activity and obesity. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Health Disparities Conference, Wallace, B. C., & Columbia University. (2008). Toward equity in health: A new global approach to health disparities. New York: Springer.
Kelly, P. (2012). Nursing leadership & management. Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning.
Marzluff, J. M. (2008). Urban ecology: An international perspective on the interaction between humans and nature. New York: Springer.
Nnakwe, N. E. (2009). Community nutrition: Planning health promotion and disease prevention. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Parízková, J., & Hills, A. P. (2005). Childhood obesity: Prevention and treatment. Boca Raton, Flor: CRC Press.
Rao, G. (2006). Child obesity: A parent's guide to a fit, trim, and happy child. Amherst, N.Y: Prometheus Books
Whitacre, P., & Institute of Medicine (U.S.). (2009). Community perspectives on obesity prevention in children: Workshop summaries. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.
