Psychology
Health Program Description
The health issue that the intervention program aims to address is the prevalence of obesity among children aged 6-13 years old. The major aspects of the intervention program are the combination of school-based and home-based initiatives where the schools take the role of increasing awareness. Meanwhile, the home intervention aspect incorporates the lifestyle choice, eating behaviour, and health practices within the household that contributes to the prevalence of obesity. The same intervention model was introduced by the Center for Diseases Control (2011), which was adopted in several communities in the United States, New, Zealand, and Canada. Evidence suggests that the multi component intervention approach (combination of school and home intervention) can significantly reduce the prevalence of obesity among school-aged children by 15 to 31% (Mulrine, 2013).
Primarily, the intervention program begins at school where the teacher discusses the importance of healthy food choices. The next part is for the students to assess their own eating habits, food preferences, and food habits in their home. This will allow the teachers to determine the next step in generalizing the approach needed for the awareness part of the intervention. This approach was based on the suggested intervention model of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2013), which aims to alleviate the prevalence of obesity from various perspectives using evidence-based research. After the assessment, the teachers will need to provide the students with lectures for 15 minutes and it will be done throughout the curriculum together with periodical assessments to determine significant change in eating habits. After which, the students will be provided with flyers to be taken home and shown to their parents/guardians. In order to determine whether the household accords with the recommendations, the parents will need to answer a short questionnaire where they will indicate what food and how often it is being served in the household. The program will cover the entire school year (10 months) and each student is expected to complete 10 assessments to determine progress. Each weak, the students will have to attend at least two out of three discussion within the week for a total of 120 discussions for the entire school year. Apart from healthy eating discussion, the teacher will also facilitate physical exercises of 150 minutes per week in a form of matching games, team activities, and healthy eating challenges. The CDC Department of Health and Human Services obesity intervention model suggested similar classroom activities, which according to study can significantly reduce the prevalence of obesity by 31% (Kropski, Keckley, and Jensen, 2008). The household aspect of the intervention program will rely on the parent’s level of adherence to the recommendations provided by the teacher. The survey questionnaire that the parents will need to accomplish on a weekly basis should reflect the changes in food preference and eating behaviour of the members of the family. It is expected that the parent will participate in the intervention program by religiously following the recommendations provided by the school nutritionist through the teacher’s instruction materials.
Goals and Objectives
The main goal of the suggested intervention program is promote healthy eating practices both at home and in the school, which aims to maintain a healthy eating behaviour among the students and prevent the onset of obesity.
The process objectives of the prevention program are to increase awareness through education and practice. During the program duration, the intervention approach should be able to show 50% adherence rate to healthy eating practices within five months. In addition, the weighing results should show that overweight students are gradually approaching the age/gender appropriate weight by at least 15% within the next three months of the program. The teachers on the other hand will undergo at least 40 training sessions with the school nutritionist and receive monthly updates.
Promoting healthy eating awareness can be more effective by assessing the root cause of the problem, which means an assessment is necessary to determine factor such as preferences and practices that might lead to the development of obesity. On the other hand, monitoring the outcome of the intervention can be more effective by allowing the parents/guardians to participate by asking their participation using short surveys, which will be treated as a classroom requirement that the students have to submit to the teachers on a regular basis. The survey forms to be accomplished by the parents will include a combination of open-ended questions, interview, and a rating scale. For example, the questionnaire will ask the parents how often do they serve healthy food varieties, serving portions, what food the parents typically shop for their kids, do they order from fast-food and how often, and among other data that renders understanding of eating behaviours home.
Measuring degree of exposure to intervention
Constant monitoring of the responses and periodic assessments will determine the participants’ level degree of exposure to the intervention program. Since the students will be asking their parents/guardians to accomplish the monitoring surveys, the teachers would easily determine if the parents are participating to the program by examining how often the students submit the survey forms. In addition, the teaches will also able to find out if the progress of the intervention by collaborating with the school’s health department by periodically conducting a weight test of the students and the record will show how the children are improving. A close observation of the eating habits will also help in the process.
Organizational Plan
Because the selected intervention model will require additional time of the teachers, the school nutritionist, physician, and nurses. Each person will have to dedicate his or her time specifically required by each aspect of the program. For example, the teacher will have to allow 15 minutes of the assessment twice a week and another 15 minutes for the health eating discussion also twice a week alternately. The nutritionist on the other hand will have to meet the teachers at least once a week for 30 minutes in order to address questions and provide advice to the teachers regarding matters of healthy eating lessons. On the other hand, the school physician and nurse will conduct the weight assessment of each student at least once a month and keep track of the weight record to determine significant changes.
The school will have to provide each classroom with materials intended for the healthy eating discussion, which includes printing of the assessment sheets, survey sheets, and other resources to allow the teachers to commence the awareness function of the program. The materials for the program will include guideline modules for the teachers in carrying out the classroom assessment and discussions, self-assessment sheets to be accomplished by the students, and a survey form that the parents will need to accomplish treated as part of the student’s weekly homework. In addition, the school will also designate human resource inputs into the program such as soliciting assistance from the school physician and nurse, dietician, nutritionist, and the teachers.
Service Utilization Plan
Social/health marketing and intervention delivery
In terms of social marketing strategy, the most challenging part is to persuade the parents/guardians to participate in the program. As such, a proper introduction of the program will ne necessary where the parents and the students will be both available for a 1-day affair. The program will kick off trough a school-wide Nutrition Day program where the parents will have to attend a classroom seminar about obesity and the risks involved. The second part is through an open discussion between the parents, the nutritionist, and the teachers to exchange concerns and ideas about the proposed intervention program. Studies suggest that the efficacy of similar intervention programs renders 13.2% reduction on obesity prevalence among school-aged children (Kropski, Keckly, and Jensen, 2008). Furthermore, school-based intervention program together with parental participation at home is 40% more cost effective as compared to clinical interventions for severe obesity cases and the confidence interval of the prevalence reduction 95% (Wang et al., 2008).
Achieving the objectives of the proposed program requires key individual to have a dedicated time to monitor all the aspects of the program. For one, the nutritionist will be appointed as the program manager where the Nutrition department will initiate the monitoring and analysis of the data submitted by the teachers. Each aspect such as periodic assessments will be scheduled and communicated in every classroom. In addition, the program team will also initiate the follow up of the unaccomplished tasks of the teachers and provide assistance where necessary.
There are two outputs that the intervention program is aiming to achieve. The first output is the pre-assessment of the student’s health condition trough BMI results and self-assessment. This output should be obtained prior to healthy eating discussions and other awareness activities. The second output is the post-assessment results obtained from periodic self-assessments and record of the student’s monthly weight. The differences in the weight of the students in each month determines whether the program is having an impact, and the perceived improvements or the lack thereof will be determined by analyzing the student’s self-assessment and correspondence from the parents.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,. (2013). Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs: Comparative Effectiveness Review and Meta-Analysis. Rockville, Maryland: AHRQ.
Center for Disease Control,. (2011). School-Based Obesity Prevention Strategies for State Policymakers. Atlanta: CDC.
Kropski, J., Keckley, P., & Jensen, G. (2008). School-based Obesity Prevention Programs: An Evidence-based Review. Obesity, 16(5), 1009-1018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/oby.2008.29
Mulrine, H. (2013). Interventions to prevent childhood obesity Literature review. Canterbury: Canterbury District Health Board. Retrieved from http://www.cph.co.nz/Files/ChildObesityPreventionLitReview.pdf
Wang, L., Gutin, B., Barbeau, P., Moore, J., Hanes, J., & Johnson, M. et al. (2008). Cost-Effectiveness of a School-Based Obesity Prevention Program. Journal Of School Health, 78(12), 619-624. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2008.00357.x
