Childhood obesity is defined as a medical condition in which the weight of a child is significantly high for his or her respective height and age. Statistics released by the Center for Disease Control, obesity among children is a serious problem that can result in serious health conditions. Childhood Obesity still remains high despite reports of reduced incidences among preschool children. The incidences of obesity affect 12.7 million children and tend to remain relatively stable at about 17%. The prevalence of childhood obesity among 12 to 19 years old was 20.5% when compared to 17.5% in those in the ages of 6 to 11 years and 8.9% among the children who fall between the ages of 2 to 5 years.
Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH )
CATCH refers to a school health program that is coordinated and designed to ensure there is an improvement in the nutrition as well as the physical activity among students. It mainly involved the students attending kindergarten through the eighth grade (Delk et al., 2014). The program is carried out in schools and after-school programs, and it incorporates community and familial involvement in an effort aimed at reducing cardiovascular diseases. The funding of the program is undertaken by The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The CATCH program is based on Center for Disease Control's School Health model. It touches on four significant aspects of the learning environment of the child including physical education, classroom, family and nutritional services (Delk et al., 2014).The component involving the classroom called “Go For Health” provides activities and lessons which teaches students on ways of identifying, practicing and adopting healthy physical activities and eating behaviors. Through the Family fun nights, parent newsletters, and take-home activities, parents are taught how to act as positive role models for their children. The objective is that parents will improve the environment at home once they are educated on issues of nutrition and physical activity.
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Many fun and unique activities that are designed to increase and participation and motivation in moderate to vigorous physical activity are provided by the CATCH physical education instruction (PE). The Eat Smart Guide under CATCH serves to address the school nutrition environment and offers tips as well as the resources for the planning and preparation of the menu (Delk et al., 2014). In addition, it provides methods of reinforcing classroom messages concerning healthy eating. CATCH also includes coordination Toolkit which increases school-wide collaborations and acts as a guide to the nutritional service staff, parents, administrators and teachers on particular actions useful in the creation of a healthier school environment.
There were reports by the first CATCH cohort of improved physical activity and diet. This was after an evaluation of about 3714 students who were among the CATCH cohorts. Currently, over 10000 educational settings and schools are involved in the implementation of the CATCH program (Delk et al., 2014). CATCH was regarded to be successful in improving the diet and physical activity of the participants. The success of the CATCH program was as a result of many factors. For instance, the participants of the program including students, parents, teachers, and administrative staff were involved in its planning and design which was crucial for program acceptability. The program was characterized by the active involvement of the school administrators such as principals, and the interdisciplinary teams were efficiently trained on the implementation of the curriculum of the CATCH program.
Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move’ campaign
The campaign was launched in 2010, and it focused on raising public awareness regarding the problems of childhood obesity through urging children to engage in physical activities. Experts in health noted that it was the first time that the issue was prioritized by a presidential administration (Wilson & Roberts. 2012). The Let’s Move campaign was criticized by some individuals. Some felt that the initiative infringed on the individual rights to make dietary choices. Other people claimed that the project did not have any real substance and was just a high profile public relations campaign. Questions as to whether the efforts aimed at curbing the rate of child obesity was effective were raised six years later, after the initiation of the campaign (Wilson & Roberts. 2012). It was also not clear whether the efforts will be sustained in case the Obamas left the White House. Margo Wootan, the nutritional policy director at the Centre for Science in the Public interest said that what most people did not see was that Michelle Obama and the administration contributed to lasting policy changes.
The white house formed a Task Force in six months after the initiation of the program, and it released a report including seventy recommendations that could be useful in addressing the problem. The recommendation had the objective of reducing the rate of child obesity by 95% by 2030. The initiative reached its climax in 2010, and during this period, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed (Wilson & Roberts. 2012).The act permitted the United States Department of Agriculture to develop new standards for all the foods that were sold in schools. Among the requirements contained in this Act include improved servings of vegetables, whole grains and fruits in meals. Also, it advocated for reduction in the amount of sodium and sugar. Other efforts of the campaign involved lobbying for the menu labeling requirements listing the levels of calories (Wilson & Roberts. 2012). Michelle Obama also formed a collaboration with the food industry with the aim of getting them to decrease the amount of sugar and sodium and banning of trans fats.
A study carried out in the year 2014 by the Centers for Disease Control, and Prevention concluded that about 17% of the children having the ages of between 2 and 19 had obesity 2012. This rate has remained relatively constant over the last decade. Individuals in support of the Michelle Obama’s campaign were of the opinion that the impact of the campaign would only be felt after many years. Some possible benefits such as labeling of the calorie count on the menu and the limiting of the junk foods within the schools have attained greater acceptance by the public (Wilson & Roberts. 2012). The Let's Move initiative was successful in that it promoted the much-needed attention to the epidemic of childhood obesity, improved on the access to the healthier foods, improved the food labeling, redesigned the lunch programs of the schools and promoted physical activities.
My Advocacy campaign for Addressing Childhood Obesity
Description of the Policy
My campaign will target the development of policies which will target the promotion of physical activity among the children and reduction in the advertisement of foods that promote obesity among the children.
Specific Objectives of the Policy
My initiative will have two primary objects. First, it will be to advocate for the reduction of the time children spend watching television and encourage their engagement in more physical activities. The campaign will involve the parents, children, teachers and the school administrators with the aim of encouraging them to implement the policy. The activity of the campaign will be to issue speeches on many occasions on the topic of childhood obesity. The campaign will be carried out in the schools where I would address the children and their teachers on the importance of physical activities in the schools. I would also visit the parent seminars and urge them to get more involved in the child's physical activities by encouraging them to reduce the amount of time their children spend watching television.
The parents and the teachers will be required to actively develop the student's schedules in according to the advocated policy. The second objective will be to advocate for the reduction in the advertisement of foods that promote childhood obesity by the media. Such foods include junk foods and the sugary foods. The initiative will suggest limiting of the advertisement of these foods by the media. Politicians would be actively involved in the program. Our campaigns will encourage the politicians to come up with laws that compel the media to reduce the advertisement of foods implicated in obesity. Advertisements of such foods should be limited to three hours a day and more healthy foods including cereals, vegetables and fruits should be allocated more time in the advertisement schedule.
Substantiation of the Proposed Campaign
Children are becoming less physically active and increasingly overweight, to the extent that childhood obesity has become a global epidemic. American children are devoting more time to the media as compared to other physical activity. The average child is considered to be exposed to the media on almost a third of each day (Strasburger et al., 2013).The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a research in 1999 and came to a conclusion that the average American child between the ages of 8 and 18 years spent almost 6 hours and 43 minutes of each day watching television (Ogden, 2014). The time is more than they spent with the parents, in school or involved in any other activity. The free time of the children are mainly dominated by the children, and this causes a reduction in their involvement in other activities. The media, specifically advertising, exposes children to many forms of messages, since it is regarded as the most abundant media source. The most common is the advertisement of snack foods including chips, cookies, and juice (Strasburger et al., 2013)). Most of the commercials targeting children promoted high-sugar, high-salt and high fat foods. These foods are considered to be of very little value in terms of nutrition. These prominently advertised food brands are consumed in larger quantities when compared to the healthy foods such as vegetables and fruits.
References
Delk, J., Springer, A. E., Kelder, S. H., & Grayless, M. (2014). Promoting teacher adoption of physical activity breaks in the classroom: findings of the central Texas CATCH middle school project. Journal of School Health , 84 (11), 722-730.
Ogden, Cynthia L., et al. "Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012." Jama 311.8 (2014): 806-814.
Strasburger, V. C., Hogan, M. J., Mulligan, D. A., Ameenuddin, N., Christakis, D. A., Cross, C., ... & Moreno, M. A. (2013). Children, adolescents, and the media. Pediatrics , 132 (5), 958-961.
Wilson, D., & Roberts, J. (2012). Special report: how Washington went soft on childhood obesity. Reuters, Accessed June , 6 , 2012.
