Overweight and obesity is among the most predominant public health problem in most of the first-world countries. The terms overweight and obesity are interchangeably used to refer to abnormal body weight that is considered unhealthy for a certain height. While overweight may be as a result of either extra body fat, bone as well as muscle or a combination of any of them, obesity is specifically associated with excess body fat. Overweight and obesity and general body weight issues are determined by genetic factors, behavioral, cultural, environmental, metabolic as well as socioeconomic influences that vary from one community setting to another. However, in the contemporary world, environmental, metabolic and behavioral factors form the major contributors to the above-mentioned community health problem.
So far, it has been possible to put in place successful intervention strategies for the purpose of prevention and treatment of cases resulting from behavioral and metabolic influences. It has become easier to control excessive calorie intake by observing healthy diets as well as inadequate physical activity by engaging in physical exercises. Cases of overweight and obese children have been on the rise in recent times culminating into a community public health concern. As at now, it is estimated that 43 million preschool children in developing countries are either obsess or overweight ( Xu, Marchand, Corcoran, Dibiasio, Clough, Dyer, Greene, 2017). If no intervention is put in place to correct these alarming statistics, by the year 2020, the number is expected to rise to 60 million. The risks factors associated with the public health issue have a lot to do with lifestyle behavior, increased screen tie, unhealthy diet, sedentary activity, as well as inadequate sleep.
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The most successful overweight and obesity interventions are community-based done in outpatient clinics, children hospital, community centers and primary care. Such interventions happen in the form of controlled diets as well as scheduled exercises to help prevent overweight and obesity or deal with the issue after it has already happened. One of the most successful community-based intervention to obesity among children is stage three multidisciplinary obesity intervention. In this intervention, the children, together with their caregivers, met in groups separately for physical activity segments and nutrition. Such sessions also included the sharing of ideas as well as engaging in question and answer sessions. One such program, the South County Food, Fitness and Fun program was able to find solutions to 95 per cent of the participants in the program thus setting an example of how community-based interventions may work to help deal with overweight and obesity issues ( Xu, Marchand, Corcoran, Dibiasio, Clough, Dyer, Greene, 2017).
Stage three multidisciplinary intervention for overweight and obesity has proven to be successful where there is a collaboration between families, pediatricians and nutritionists. The outcome of the community-based program is evident by the reduction of BMI among the participants and a reduction of their energy intake. It is evident that community-based interventions such as the one under consideration improve the physical fitness of children that make the children get used to a certain cycle that they are able to continue back at their homes. The same applies to the nutritional intake as well as sleeping durations which are key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Subjecting children to camping, monitored holidays, as well as community initiatives that take stipulated periods, enables them to get used to a certain nutritional habit as well as maintaining their fitness.
Reference
Xu, F., Marchand, S., Corcoran, C., Dibiasio, H., Clough, R., Dyer, C. S., … Greene, G. W. (2017). A Community-Based Nutrition and Physical Activity Intervention for Children Who Are Overweight or Obese and Their Caregivers. Journal of Obesity , 2017 , 1–9. doi: 10.1155/2017/2746595
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002074891500334X#sec0150
