Fitness-Based Intervention to Reduce Childhood Obesity

Introduction and Personal Meaningfulness

The problem of obesity has worsened in recent years as Americans have tended culturally to engage in less physical activity, to eat less nutritiously, and to lead generally sedentary lifestyles. The result is a set of negative health indicators that become evident early in life, such as juvenile diabetes, increased risk of heart disease, and diminishing physical dexterity. Therefore, the research conducted here makes as its primary focus the positive implications of regular physical activity and exercise, drawing a connection between physical activity and reduced tendencies toward obesity. As one who has witnessed firsthand in family members and loved ones the myriad negative health realities connected to obesity, there is a significant social imperative to find empirical ways to reduce its presence as a public health problem.

Considering the anatomical implications of regular healthy exercise, the research proposed here will reveal an array of benefits to immediate and long-term health maintenance that may serve as a positive intervention. The physiological indicators produced by the exercise science discipline illustrate that there are sound reasons — in terms of both shaping emphasis and preempting risks — for promoting physical activity wherever possible. The discussion will define physical activity broadly so as to accommodate multiple lifestyle types. Accordingly, "physical activity in daily life can be categorized into occupational, sports, conditioning, household, or other activities. Exercise is a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness" (Caspersen et al., 1985, p. 126).

Ultimately, the research will pursue the thesis that making physical activity a regular part of one's everyday life can significantly reduce one's vulnerability to obesity. The study will apply this argument to a youth population based on the premise that early intervention is the most effective way to promote lasting and positive lifestyle tendencies with respect to physical activity.

These imperatives are driven by the primary research question: which strategies are best suited to reducing the dangers of long-term obesity — such as diabetes and the formation of negative long-term health behaviors? The primary importance of this question is informed by the wide array of health hazards associated with obesity and the positive benefits of exercise-based intervention.

Research Questions and Key Health Indicators

Chief among the relevant evidence is research demonstrating that exercise and physical activity are directly related to cardiovascular indicators. Heart health is positively correlated with exercise and, according to the research, physical activity can be an effective way to diagnose, detect, or treat emerging heart conditions in youth. Connections are also drawn in the research between exercise and both aerobic and anaerobic gains for the child. The child's unique heart rate patterns and energy production mechanisms are discussed in this context. The relationship between bone density and exercise — also distinct in the child — is examined in the discussion as well. The reference to these different physiological systems reveals the encompassing benefits of exercise to the pre-adolescent and informs the mixed-methods approach that will drive further research on the subject.

Human subjects will inherently present a research process with a number of considerations pertaining to the achievement of validity and the retention of scientific integrity. First and foremost is imposing some degree of experimental control over subjects, whether through the use of a laboratory setting or the proper consideration of all variables and outliers in a field context. This points to a second consideration that is equally relevant: this control must not come at the cost of natural responsiveness on the part of participants. In the case of self-report methods, for instance, participants may provide data distorted by a desire to present a certain impression to researchers. Researchers must account for this in the nature of the research design.

Another crucial issue concerning human subjects is the manner in which researchers insert themselves into — or remain apart from — the study context. The researcher has the capacity to intervene unintentionally with the behavior of human subjects if he or she does not take the proper precautions to avoid doing so.

Methods and Human Subjects Considerations

The ethical realities of working with human subjects are also of crucial importance, primarily with respect to scientific integrity. Undue intervention by the researcher in an attempt to influence certain behaviors or responses among subjects may threaten the value of the proposed data. Additionally, there is an ethical concern any time human subjects are used — but most especially where health subjects and youth samples are relevant — that improper research orientation may verge on the exploitation of its subjects. For instance, many ethnographic approaches that have placed the researcher into direct interaction with subjects of distinct cultural difference have historically had negative effects on study subjects due to failures in the prevention of exploitation.

In the research context considered here, the use of traditional public school avenues of education and activity can help substantially reduce the threat of exploitation.

Conclusion and Evaluation Plan

Ultimately, evaluation of the research intervention would be conducted in a number of qualitative forms, to be implemented at the 1-month, 6-month, and 1-year marks following the initiation of the process described above. Using open-ended interviews with subjects, as well as drawing on various health indicators such as weight, Body Mass Index, blood pressure, and cholesterol, the study can begin to draw certain correlations between the features of the intervention, the individual experiences reported by subjects, and measurable health outcomes.