Childhood obesity is among the most common pediatric health challenges that continue to be experienced in different parts around the globe. The growing prevalence associated with childhood obesity throughout different states in the United States has caused legislators and public health policymakers to become more concerned and rank this challenge as one of the critical threats to the public health. As such, public health policies around the issue of childhood obesity remain of particular significance and interest to the nursing profession. In this case, the legislature to be contacted is Senator Lauren Book who is a member of the Committee on Health Policy from the Florida Senate (Reilly, 2016).
Key Points of Healthcare Policy-priority about Childhood Obesity
The specific problem associated with the issue of childhood obesity in the state of Florida involves the ineffective response and poor management of victims of obesity. Considering that childhood obesity is one of the common problems facing the public health sector in the state of Florida, the focus of the policy formulation and implementation processes would be expected to include programs towards enhancing children’s health. In particular, the state of Florida has been experiencing a high number of cases related to childhood obesity which have shown considerable levels of inconsistencies with the available policies. To that extent, there is an urgent need for the formulation and continual development of appropriate legislation and policies with the objective of effectively addressing the issue of childhood obesity in Florida (Karnik & Kanekar, 2014).
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According to Pandita et al . (2016), the effects of childhood obesity often touch on the economic status of a given state owing to increased allocation of funds and spending on healthcare programs targeting the affected children. The enhancement of the existing public health legislation and policies, as well as other intervention measures such as having qualified and experienced healthcare workers, could play a considerable role in reducing and preventing the high rates of childhood obesity that is presently experienced in the state of Florida. The observation made by Karnik and Kanekar (2014), indicates that an introduction of public health initiatives such as the introduction of wellness programs in schools with the aim of bringing about fundamental changes to the regulatory issues around the problem of childhood obesity would be among the effective ways of addressing this problem.
Previously, the legislative approach concerned with the monitoring of school wellness programs for children in the state of Florida played a vital role in introducing healthy eating habits as a way of reducing high rates of childhood obesity. The efforts towards effecting legislative and policy changes on the issue of childhood obesity among other public health issue were seen to be part of the appropriate and effective ways that would be used by the members of the community to enhance the lifestyle of their children (Kersh, Stroup & Taylor, 2011).
One of the recommendations that the legislator and policymakers could do something about in the state of Florida is introducing legislation or policy such as advisory and counseling programs capable of influencing behavioral changes in obese children or children prone to obesity based on family history and lifestyle. The implementation of this policy will go a long way in ensuring that children get used to healthy lifestyle thus reducing cases of childhood obesity. Moreover, it is recommended that legislatures and policymakers should ensure that the policy frameworks introduced through various legislation and regulations incorporate the input of all the relevant stakeholders such as parents, teacher, and healthcare practitioners. Also, it is recommended that incentive programs could be introduced where a school-appointed nurse serves as a counselor to obese children and their family by monitoring the wellness of these children through periodic check-ins against an overall care plan. The incentive program may be linked back to some income tax benefit to the family or additional funding to the school for infrastructure improvements, teacher salaries, and staff benefits (Reilly, 2016).
Various thoughts have been advanced about the public healthcare policies on childhood obesity. For instance, critics continue to question the effectiveness of different legal authorities and legislation when it comes to carrying out the prevention and control of childhood obesity. Dietz, Benken, and Hunter (2009) argue that several gaps still exist between the application of different legal authorities and the level of legal preparedness in handling the issue of childhood obesity. The goals of healthcare and public health policies on childhood obesity would involve the creation of a direct synergy between social change and behavioral-environmental as a way of promoting and encouraging a healthy population of children and young people. In this respect, there have been various federal and state authorities and health institutions charged with the responsibility of creating actions plan with the focus on preventive measures.
The overall outcome of such programs has always been associated with a significant reduction of the prevalence rates of childhood obesity in the state of Florida. According to Reilly (2016), in evaluating the available options, it is worth noting that the initiatives towards enhancing legislation around the issue of childhood obesity present different options of strategic approach such as cultural factors, behavioral factors, environmental factors, and different social constructs. In this case, examples of behavioral factors include lack of physical exercise and long durations spent on passive leisure activities whereas examples of social constructs include indulgence in unhealthy lifestyles owing to their social status. The formulation and implementation of effective public health policies related to childhood obesity are significant to the nursing in the sense that nurses have an active responsibility and role to play when it comes to the management of the major programs aimed at reducing the prevalence of obesity in children. As such, the implementation of such policies requires a closer collaboration of nurses with other stakeholders such as teachers and parents in ensuring the implementation of such wellness policies. Further, the impacts of the childhood policy implementation are considerably influenced by the advisory, counseling and caregiving roles played by nurses in the course of their practices. To that extent, the implementation of public health policies on the issue of childhood obesity is largely significant to the nursing practice.
It is recommended that the involvement of policymakers and legislators in the prevention and control of childhood obesity ought to be guided by the strategic approaches and ethical considerations. In this respect, the strategic approaches involve creating legislations only where and when it is necessary. For example, the legislator could strategize on putting in place strict regulations that improve the quality of physical exercise programs. As for ethical considerations, the policies and legislation developed by the legislator should ensure that wellness programs in schools include a wide variety of wellness activities and physical exercises. This consideration will ensure that one wellness trainer supplier or groups of trainers do not get an unfair advantage over the others. Comprehensive and detailed information about the present status of public policies related to childhood obesity could be found by evaluating information from state and federal government departments such as the US Department of Health and Human Services (Kersh, Stroup & Taylor, 2011).
Pandita et al . (2016) point out that professional organizations at global, federal, state or local levels such as World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Nurses Association (ANS) could also be accessed through their respective websites to find alerts and updates about policies on childhood obesity. Both the federal and state levels of governments are involved in the creation of appropriate and effective public health policies regarding the issue of childhood obesity. In this regard, the immediate target and focus are directed at the state level of government where the state legislatures are charged with the responsibility of enacting laws and regulations whose implementations would be expected to trickle down to the local government levels.
In conclusion, the nursing practice has a major role to play in influencing changes to the hurdles and challenges that characterize the existing policy frameworks such as ineffectiveness of school wellness programs. To that extent, the practitioners and healthcare givers in the nursing practice could be actively involved in designing and overseeing the implementation of the health and wellness initiatives in schools. Nurses and other health practitioners in the nursing practice could also offer advisory and counseling programs to school children who are faced with the risk of suffering from childhood obesity.
References
Dietz, W. H., Benken, D. E., & Hunter, A. S. (2009). Public Health Law and the Prevention and Control of Obesity. The Milbank Quarterly , 87 (1), 215–227.
http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00553.x
Karnik, S., & Kanekar, A. (2014). A narrative review of public health policies for childhood obesity prevention in the United States. Journal of Local and Global Health Science , (1), 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/jlghs.2014.4
Kersh, R., Stroup, D. F., & Taylor, W. C. (2011). Childhood Obesity: A Framework for Policy Approaches and Ethical Considerations. Preventing Chronic Disease , 8 (5), A93.
Pandita, A., Sharma, D., Pandita, D., Pawar, S., Tariq, M., & Kaul, A. (2016). Childhood Obesity: Prevention is better than cure. Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, and Obesity: Targets and Therapy , 9 , 83–89. http://doi.org/10.2147/DMSO.S90783
Reilly, J. J. (2016). Obesity in childhood and adolescence: evidence based clinical and public health perspectives. Postgraduate Medical Journal , 82 (969), 429–437. http://doi.org/10.1136/pgmj.2005.043836
