Obesity Is Particularly Common Amongst

Obesity is particularly common amongst children from rural areas. There it is discovered that greater risk behavior, such as unhealthy diet and decreased physical activity are more common than in urban areas. One such population is Appalachia that reportedly has an excess of premature deaths due to obesity and related problems.

The authors of this qualitative study (Schetzina, G. et al. 2009), therefore, conducted a series of focus groups with parent's teachers, and 4th grade students of one school community in Appalachia to determine the success and ramifications of their school-obesity prevention program named 'Winning with Wellness.' The program is slanted to address the health needs specific to this region. Their employed method of study used a convenience sample for randomization -- which means a population that was readily available to them.

Results revealed that the community stakeholders were concerned about the issue of child obesity and supported attempts of their school to expand endeavors to reduce the problem by improving diet and physical activity amongst its students. Limitations, however, seemed to be the school environment itself, academic pressures, and lack of parental support towards accomplishing needed changes. Teachers and parents opposed BMI screening in the schools, and parents were concerned that children were not receiving sufficient food. On the other hand, parents were in factor of increased physical activity and suggested that parent volunteers should help students select food in the cafeteria. Students thought that they should have more time allotted for recesses and for physical education and opined how diet and physical activity effected their school performance and health.

Limitations with design of this study included constrained demographics and the exclusion to one school. A comparison of schools (a cross-sectional study) would have been valuable since it would have strengthened reliability of the study (i.e. The possibility of the results of the study beign applied to other applicable and similar situations). More valuable still would have been the contrast and comparison of various obesity-intervention models in order to assess and compare results of each. This population, small as it is - only 41 teachers and 105 staff were involved as well as an unrecorded quantity of parents and students (again excluded to one specific class) - slanted the results of the project. The fact that only one class was involved distorted results still further. A longitudinal study, i.e. one occurring over a span of time, may -- despite certain problems with validity -- also prove more interesting. The opinions of these students are unreliable particularly since they were formed in the presence of others; therefore peer pressure may have been inevitably involved in articulating opinion. This is particularly so since individuals are, to a great extent, influenced by the opinions and conformism of others (Asch, 1955). Children of this young age may be particularly susceptible to pressure to conform. Furthermore, there'd no guarantee that the children's opinion was objective. It would be expected that the children would push for increased recess time. Note that no mention was made regarding diet. Also note that this specific class was selected by the principal therefore objectivity is further corrupted.

However, use of the focus groups as means of gathering information may have been more advantageous in regards to the other 2 groups (parents and staff / teachers) since it prompts thought on the matter and inter-communications that yields discoveries on the matter and ideas about how to improve the situation. The idea about the parent volunteers, for instance, could best have emerged in a focus group environment. (Albrecht et al., 1993).

There, too, could have interviewer / facilitator bias and confounding details involved. The two trained moderators were Caucasian whereas the population was of mixed ethnic origin. Nuance of different cultural approach could have been overlooked and cultural misunderstanding involved. The two facilitators were also subjectively involved in the sessions. The transcripts, therefore, should have been reviewed and coded by individuals other than they; these individuals would have bee more objective to the procedure. Although the team reviewing the themes followed review, the entire study, based on only one small and slanted population and violating too many coda of objectivity, seems insufficiently scientific to me. All of this corrupts the validity of the study (i.e. The scientific soundness and accuracy of the study itself).