Program design for reducing childhood obesity rates

Program Design on Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity has become a very serious epidemic today, it is estimated that about 16.3% of children all over the world are obese.in the past four decades the rate of obesity for children that are aged between 6 and 11 years has gone up by more than four times.it is a serious pandemic since obese children are likely to suffer health consequences not only in their childhood and adolescence but also throughout their lives as adults. They are at risk for problems of joints and bones, sleep apnea, psychological and social problems, health diseases, type II diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis, and stroke. Childhood obesity is an epidemic that cuts across the lines of ethnicity, family income, and race however, there are certain populations that are at a higher risk as compared to others. Some of the populations that are at risk include Latinos, African Americas, Native Americans and low income individuals.

As we have seen the issue of childhood obesity is a serious that needs urgent attention. Therefore there is need for the creation of a program design elements on childhood obesity.

Mission statement

The mission statement of this program is "eliminating obesity from the lives of our children." We have seen that obesity has become a common disorder among our children today. Therefore there is the need of taking the necessary steps to ensure that there is a reduction of the number of obese children in the world today. This calls for measures to be taken against the increased trend of obese children and instead ensuring that children are living lifestyles that will help in the prevention of obesity. The mission statement of the program should be embraced by all stakeholders involved including children, their parents, teachers and the entire community. If embraced we will surely see a reduction in cases of children with obesity in the near future.

1. To get children a healthy start of life

This first objective involves recommendations for mother getting good prenatal care, supporting breastfeeding, adhering to limits on screen time and childcare that involves giving nutritious food to children as well as offering them opportunities of being physically active. This will also require setting of goals that will see the increase of the amounts of fruits children eat to about 75% of the level that is recommended by 2015 with subsequent increases in the years that follow. Another thing involved in this objective is ensuring that there is an increase in the uptake of vegetables in children and at the same time decrease the amounts of sugar that is added to many of the products.

2. To empower parents and caregivers

The second objective involves educating parents and caregivers with food menus and nutritional labels that are easy to read and at the same time adhere to the dietary guidelines in the world. There should also be an improvement in the heath care services and testing which should include the measurement of Body Mass Index for children. This objective also aims at the reduction of the marketing of foods that are considered to be unhealthy top children.

3. To provide healthy foods in schools

This objective is aimed at schools whereby they are encouraged to ensure that they are serving healthy options for children as well as to ensure there is an upgrade of the quality of foods which are sold for children in schools (Digate, 2010). Part of this objective is to carry out nutritional education in schools where the caregivers are going to be educated on healthy foods they should provide. Schools will also be required to update their nutritional standards as well as improvement of nutritional quality commodities that are given to the students. The program will also recommend that food companies are asked to come up with new products as well as reformulate the ones that are existence in order for them to meet he nutritional standards set on the basis of dietary guidelines and at the same time are appealing to the children (Segal, 2009).

4. To ensure that access to healthy and affordable food is improved

This objective calls for lowering of prices of foods that are considered healthy, the development and re-formulation of food products in order to make them healthier and the elimination of food deserts in the world.it is the lack of access to healthy foods which lead to hunger and subsequently results obesity so the program aims to create a fix on the root cause of this problem through ensuring that healthy options are made more affordable and accessible. The prices of vegetables and fruits have gone up and are nearly twice those of carbonated drinks. This high price of vegetables and fruits is what has reduced the ability of consumers to buy these healthy foods. Therefore the reduction of these prices will make consumers go for them since they will be affordable (Segal, 2009).

5. To get children to become more physically active

This program will recommend physical education and recess together with pother physical activities available for all the children. This objective focusses on the improvement of playgrounds, parks as well as recreational activities that are meant for children.

It is important for the representatives of target population to be involved in the development of goals and objectives because they are the ones who will help in implementation. They have to be involved since they are the ones who are going to help in making sure that this goals and objectives are fully implemented to the target audience. Furthermore these representatives are the ones who now e target audience hence their assistance is required in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the program.

Stakeholders

There are various stakeholders that would be involved in the planning process. The stakeholders include parents, teachers, food producing companies, government officials, media officials, and communities. Their involvement in the program can be facilitated trough offering them education on obesity and its effects and how it can be prevented, this education should be offered free and hence the stakeholders will be a force that pulls them to take part in the project .people would not want anything they are being charged and hence giving the education free would be a good enough incentive. Coming up with a policy of rewarding those who take part in the program would also be an incentive that will get the stakeholders involved in the program (Digate, 2010).