Obesity is a condition in which the body fats accumulates to the levels where it may have adverse effects on someone’s health, hence leading to increased health problems and reduced life expectancy (Haslam, 2009). An individual is categorized as obese when the body mass index exceeds 30kg/m2. Obesity escalates the chances of one attracting various diseases, predominantly heart disease, certain types of cancers, sleep disorders, osteoarthritis and type two diabetes as noted by Haslam. Statistics reveal that today, two-thirds of the adults in the United States of America and almost one out of three children have obesity or are overweight. The impacts of the obesity as an epidemic of the American nation are enormous. Businesses, communities, individuals and tax payers spend billions of dollars every year due to obesity. This includes nearly two hundred billion dollars expenditure on medical cost. The present generation is expected to have shorter lifespans than their parents because of obesity. Obesity as a whole has caused many losses and cannot be left uncontrolled. More can still be done to reverse the impacts of this epidemic including eating of healthy foods, being active and provision of suitable treatment. This can be achieved through effective mobilization of leaders across the industries, academic institutions, public health and the various policy makers through thorough and rigorous anti-obesity health campaigns so as to see the effects of the most prevalent and costliest epidemic reversed.
The targeted audience in this campaign will be the workforce of the nation. The individuals in the workforce suffer more from chronic health conditions that are related to obesity or being overweight. 450 million more days of work are missed each year by full-time workers who are obese and overweight due to the contraction of chronic diseases. This leads to 153 billion dollar loss in productivity every year while the medical expenses incurred by the obese employees are 42% more than for a person with a healthy weight (Koffman, 2012). The targeted communities of need are the Hispanics, the blacks and the native people who are more probable to becoming obese or overweight than the white communities as justified by the data obtained from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Therefore the efforts of this research will be directed to such vulnerable communities.
My campaign will in embrace the community based interventions. These are strategies that tend to engage the whole community to conceptualize along the boundaries like suburbs and villages and even the smaller units like work places and learning institutions so as to address the major causation factors that could heighted such weight gain among the affected. This method has the advantage of reaching the minority groups and different population niches that the government policies cannot influence much. Alongside the community based approaches, my campaign will also emphasize on a regulatory approach towards curbing this epidemic. This approach will push the government to enact laws that ensures reduction of the spread of obesity. The benefit of this tactic is that it covers a wider scope and it impact can be felt by every citizen across the entire nation as the government policies are enacted at national level. Social marketing that catalyzes the behavioral change in a population or community of target will not be left unutilized in the course of my campaign due to its wider scope too. Community based approach, regulatory approach and the social marketing approach that I will employ in my campaign are justified because they address obesity across the entire community as opposed to targeting of a subset of a community. This campaign should be directed to the entire community given that in the past decade weight gain has been witnessed across the range of body weights, not only in the obese or overweight subsets.
My campaign will capitalize on the community based initiatives, to sensitize the community at large on the importance of build more sporting facilities and playgrounds, hiring of more sport instructors and even mapping of walking itineraries. These factors will encourage the physical activity of the youths hence contributing to reduction of cases of obesity. My campaign will recommend the creation of cooking classes to families and offering of counselling services to the overweight children and encouraging them to see their doctors (Westin, 1996). My campaign will push for changes in the canteen menus with the introduction of fruity meals, reduction in sessions of watching television and increasing physical exercise after school. It is estimated that 50% of the U.S adults and 65% of the adolescents do not get recommended daily physical exercise currently. Therefore measures that promote the increase in the physical activity among the adults and the youths as well, will be emphasized on in the campaign process.
The eventual goal of this campaign is to help in reversing the trend towards overweight obesity in the United States and its chronic health consequences. The campaigns major communication objective is to encourage healthier lifestyles among Americans who are now overweight or unhealthy and risk for obesity and extensive chronic maladies. My campaign also aims at changing attitudes of the victims of obesity towards hoping for a better tomorrow if they fasten their efforts in implementing the remedial actions towards reversing the epidemic. By the end of my campaign I would like to witness an increase in physical activity among the children and the adolescents especially the ones from the communities that are vulnerable. I expect that families will appreciate the importance of decreasing the consumption of energy dense foods like ice cream, junk food and fast food and increasing the consumption of nutritious foods like vegetables, skimmed milk and whole grains among others. I aim to create a social, policy driven and monetary initiatives that can reinforce long term behavioral and environmental change.
References
Haslam, D. W., & Witterst, G. (2009). Obesity. Abingdon: Health Press.
Koffman, D. M. (2012). The CDC worksite health scorecard an assessment tool for employers to prevent heart disease, stroke, & related health conditions.. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.
Sturm, R. (n.d.). Stemming the Global Obesity Epidemic. : What Can We Learn from Data About Social and Economic Trends?. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP20080826.html
Unhealthy U.S. Workers' Absenteeism Costs $153 Billion. (n.d.). Unhealthy U.S. Workers' Absenteeism Costs $153 Billion. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/150026/unhealthy-workers-absenteeism-costs-153-billion.aspx
Westin, J. E., & Westin, J. E. (1996). The thin books daily strategies & meditations for fat-free, guilt-free, binge-free living. Center City, Minn: Hazelden.
