Social media strategies for addressing youth obesity and sedentary lifestyles

Scholarly Activity Summary and Benefit

Overview The scholarly activity for this assignment consisted of an analysis concerning how social media can be used to promote healthier diet choices and increased physical fitness activities by young people. A review of current social media offerings together with relevant literature provided some valuable insights about best practices and opportunities for improving existing social media offerings about this issue. Problem · Young people in the United States are engaged in increasingly sedentary lifestyles that are characterized by heavy use of computers and television watching (Joshi & Cole, 2016). · These lifestyles, combined with poor diet choices, have exacerbated obesity levels to the point where many clinicians caution that the problem rises to the level of a national epidemic (Joshi & Cole, 2016). · There are also some gender-related differences in how these sedentary activities are being used, with males watching more television and playing video games compared to their female counterparts who tend to spend more time engaged in communicating with peers and interacting on social media platforms (Joshi & Cole, 2016). · Furthermore, American females are at greater risk of becoming extremely obese compared to males (Overweight and obesity statistics, 2018).

The current estimated percentages of U.S. youths who are obese are depicted in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Estimated percentage of obese U.S. youth aged 2-19 years Source: Overweight and obesity statistics, 2018 Other recent trends in obesity levels among young Americans include the following: · The prevalence of obesity increased significantly among adult men and women between 1980- 2000; and, · More recently, between 2005- 2014, the prevalence of overall obesity and extreme obesity increased significantly among women, however, there were no significant increases for men (Overweight and obesity statistics, 2018). The adverse health consequences of adolescent and young adult obesity are well documented, and include increased risk for the following: · High blood pressure; · High LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides; · Type 2 diabetes; · Coronary heart disease; · Stroke; · Gallbladder disease; · Osteoarthritis; · Sleep apnea and breathing problems; · Some cancers (endometrial, breast, colon, kidney, gallbladder, and liver); · Low quality of life; · Mental illness such as clinical depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders; and, · Body pain and difficulty with physical functioning (The health effects of overweight and obesity, 2018). Solution A review of the social media platform Facebook showed that there are several resources available that are designed to address youth obesity, including the Stop Obesity Alliance (https://www.facebook.com/STOPObesityAlliance/) and the MacDonald Center for Obesity Prevention and Education (https://www.facebook.com/VillanovaNursingCOPE/), among many others. These sites typically provide a user forum where consumers can share their empirical observations as well as success stories (and failures) and receive nearly real-time support from others. Opportunity Some of these resources were operated by individuals while others (such as the MacDonald site) were operated by trained professionals. These trends underscore the importance for nursing professionals to integrate social media resources into their educational offerings concerning health issues of interest, in this case youth obesity. Just as classroom educators must recognize that when students do not learn the way they teach, they must teach the way they learn, nursing educators must use the resources that are being accessed most frequently by their targeted audience to ensure their efforts are making a difference. Program Competencies Addressed The following program competencies were addressed by this scholarly activity: · MC1: Effective Communication · MC2: Critical Thinking · MC5: Leadership