Childhood obesity in Kentucky is a growing disease that has become an epidemic that has last effects not only physically, but psychologically as well. Childhood obesity over the last decade has increased tremendously, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the childhood obesity rate has tripled. Parents, teachers, and local health department helping to maintain and reduce obesity rates is an important public health goal proven to reduce illness and improve the overall quality and quantity of life. We have developed an intervention to reduce the rate of childhood obesity with the help of parents, school staff, and local health departments.
The goal of this program is to prevent childhood obesity in elementary school children in the Bowling Green Area. By 2017 the school systems will implement 30 minutes of exercise in physical education 3 days a week. Per every semester parental guardians and children will participate in a health education program presented by the school and local health departments discussing healthy lifestyles.
The first approach in this intervention is taking the children and getting their height and weight to measure the improvement at the end of the program. Parents and guardians will be encouraged to participate with the students in a PowerPoint program to educate them about healthy lifestyles per semester. They should have at least one hour of physical activity per day, no more than two hours to computer/television activities, three or more servings of dairy per day, four or more servings of fruit per day, etc.
Along with the program the children will get to take home a healthy kids log sheet where they will monitor the past mentioned areas from day to day. Students who complete the log will bring them back every two weeks and receive a treat to motive students to participate. The cafeteria staff will be involved by working with health departments create an exchange program where they exchange one of the lesser healthy foods for ones that are healthy. For example, fries as a side could be exchanged for a salad. Students will also be required as part of the school curriculum to participate in thirty minutes of moderate exercise in their physical education classes every other day for a total of three days a week. These activities included endurance exercise, also some the promote muscle strength. Most importantly we want to aim for a fun approach, making sure we can include games that everyone can actively participate in.
To get our goal accomplished, we want to have a meeting for parents and guardians each period to teach them about nutrition. This is in hopes that they will take the knowledge home with them to their children and implement healthy eating styles to help reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity. We also want to enforce more physical education time in school. Students should be able to have time set aside to get exercise while in school as part of their curriculum. This teaches them healthy lifestyles while they are growing up in the school system.
To get these goals done, we want to meet with the school board and other gatekeepers in the community such as parents and school nurses and get them on board. With their help, we will hopefully be able to make these changes happen. They are the people who make the laws and rules within the community, so they will be the pull we need to accomplish our goals. The school board can help with enforcing the extra physical education time. The school nurses, the parents, the teachers, and the principal would be a good way to implement the goal of having a meeting or class for the parents and guardians. You don’t need a set law to implement this goal like you do for the other one. You just need people to organize and enforce it. Having everyone at the school with a goal to reduce childhood obesity in Bowling Green, Kentucky is a good start to getting this class or meeting about nutrition organized. An article done on healthy eating states that “Parents are the most important influence in their children’s lives – and that includes food and physical activity choices”. This is why it is important for this class to be held, so students will have a healthy lifestyle at home and at school, reducing childhood obesity, which in turn could reduce obesity as a whole.
The implementation of this system not only gets the children involved but also the guardians of these children. They then get to work together to not only improve the health of the child but also of the whole family. Showing the kids ideas and then giving the parents similar ideas will help with bonding inside the family, helping to make healthy more confident kids that will lead healthier lives over all. Statistics show that families that spend time together cooking and planning meals raise kids who are less likely to use drugs, or end up in jail.
Childhood obesity in this country is at an all-time high and in the state of Kentucky it is no different. I believe that part of the problem is the fact that children don’t get enough time out of the day in school to go to physical education. Physical education today is more than just having children run laps around the gym or just rolling the basketball out and letting them play. Physical education involves teaching those skills and activities that can help the children live healthy and active lifestyles for the rest of their lives.
According to the State of Obesity website, in Kentucky the childhood obesity rate for 2-4 year olds in low income families is 15.5%. In 10-17 year olds the obesity rate is 19.7%. In high school students the obesity rate is 18.0. Correspondingly, according to Americas Health Rankings 18.5% of Hispanic children are affecting by obesity, in the African-American population 42.9% of children are affected by obesity. In the Caucasian population 31.3% of children are affected by obesity. That means that 31.6% of children in all three populations are affected by childhood obesity.
As you can tell from these statistics low income families are affected the most. Not only people with low incomes, but obesity issues for anyone can create serious health issues to arise such as diabetes, heart issues, arthritis and obesity-related cancer. It is important for not only the schools, but also for parents to introduce healthy lifestyles to children early as it is a key factor in reducing these percentages. All of these rates are way too high for any population to deal with. We need to try and help all of these populations get all of these numbers down. Helping populations get their childhood obesity numbers down begins with parents getting involved at home and physical education in the schools. Educating them on how to be healthy and live an active healthy lifestyle and give them the tools they need in order to succeed.