Childhood Obesity Assignment

PICOT Question:

What traits do children suffering from obesity have in common and how can these common traits assist the medical field in preventing the disease of obesity? Problem Statement: Children suffering from obesity also suffer from other serious health problems related to obesity. These health problems consist of diabetes mellitus, elevated levels of cholesterol, and also elevated blood pressure. Typically, these diseases are not noticed until the child reaches the age of adulthood however, with the recently increased rates of childhood obesity, it is beginning to be found at an earlier age (American Heart Association, 2016).

There are many preventative measures one can follow to prevent childhood obesity and other childhood diseases related to obesity. According to the American Heart Association (2016) obesity in children is one of the leading health concerns in the United States. Additional research is needed to explore interventions with the greatest effect to help prevent childhood obesity and the health problems that follow.

Methodology

Sample/Setting

The primary focus of this research study is hedged on the need to increase understanding of the traits that children suffering from obesity have in common and how can these common traits assist the medical field in preventing the disease of obesity. To achieve this goal, low-income families from rural communities will then be recruited to serve as a sample population of the research study. The rural areas will therefore be defined based on a set of factors that include the budget definition that delineates them as rural in the event of a lack of presence of metropolitan statistics of the areas and with a population of close to 50,000 people.

The income level will also be defined based on the average income levels and rates below a state’s average poverty level or rate. Other factors that will be considered mainly include the existing health focus and coalitions within the community to aid in addressing childhood obesity (Aldolaim, 2019). Once selected through random screening criteria, the communities will then be assigned randomly to an intervention. This, therefore, reveals that the study’s sample size will be (n=200). The sample size will therefore be sufficient in the detection of a larger effect size of (d ≥ 0.8), hence establishing a 95% power for the use of a two-tailed test with an alpha of =.05 mainly between the comparison community and the interventions.

Research Design

To achieve the intent of this study, a quasi-experimental research study will be initiated on the sample population within a rural community (n=200). These efforts will help in the mobilization of communities that will create as well as sustain a feasible environment of physical activities and healthy eating that would prevent the element of childhood obesity. Two rural areas or rather communities will then be assigned randomly with the intent of serving as comparison communities or rather as an intervention (Koo et al., 2018).

Coalitions will ensure that the assessments are completed within the population of study to choose from an evidence-based model and approach that may be used in the implementation of nutrition as well as physical activity interventions annually to prevent the increasing cases of childhood obesity with particular emphasis on the environment, policy, and system changes. Only an intervention coalition will in this case receive community coaching precisely from trained coaches.

The outcomes will then be assessed at the baseline through the use of validated as well as coalition methods of self—assessment to determine the parental perceptions in regards to the establishment of early childhood environments, communities, and self-reflective strategies that may be used in mapping the impact of obesity among the population group. A mixed—approach of analysis will then be used in the evaluation of the findings with the intent of underscoring effective strategies that may be used in the creation and the sustenance of an environment that significantly supports physical activities and healthy eating among the young children (Koo et al., 2018).

A corresponding non—parametric test as established in this case will equally be used in the analysis of the quantitative data that relates to a set of environmental changes that will significantly be set as p < .05. The dominant emerging themes collected from the qualitative data collected with then be weaved together with the quantitative data with the intent of developing a theoretical approach and model that represents how communities are impacted by the research study.

References

Aldolaim, S. (2019). Parental Perceptions of Childhood Obesity: Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Childhood Obesity, 04(01). https://doi.org/10.36648/2572-5394.4.1.70
Koo, H., Poh, B., & Abd Talib, R. (2018). The GReat-Child^TM Trial: A Quasi-Experimental Intervention on Whole Grains with Healthy Balanced Diet to Manage Childhood Obesity in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nutrients, 10(2), 156. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10020156