Getting Fit With The Grizzlies : A Community School Home Initiative Fight Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is a major public health epidemic which has significantly risen over the past three decades and there is no chance in sight of slowing it down unless real action is taken. This major health crisis continues to reduce individuals’ quality of life and has caused severe health problem like heart disease which is the leading cause of death in the United States and around the world. In most cases, obese children grow up to be an obese adult. The prevalence of childhood obesity can be addressed through education initiatives such as school prevention programs because children spent a majority of their time outside of the home at school, therefore school provides a great opportunity to educate and improve a child’s health at an ideal point before the problem gets worst. My paper will focus on childhood obesity prevention in Hill Top Middle school Lodi, New Jersey.

Obesity is a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in our bodies. This disease is increasing at an alarming rate in American children and adolescents, especially those within the ages 2 to 19. This essay examines the difference between school-based interventions (i.e., educate our children about obesity at an early age, serving right nutrition in schools) and community based interventions (i.e., parents help provide better nutrition for their children) to prevent obesity. Both interventions can help decrease obesity rates in children, but the point of this essay review is to point out which interventions will provide the better results to solve the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States.

“The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake” a quote made by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, as she launches her comprehensive initiative to change the way children think about nutrition and physical fitness (“Learn the Facts,” 2010). Three decades ago, children lived active lives that kept them healthier. They walked to and from school, ate home cooked, reasonable portion meals with vegetables and played outdoors most of the time. Today, children ride the bus instead of walk, eat more fast food and snacks throughout the day because parents are busier, and watch more television or play video games rather than be active outside with peers (“Learn the Facts,” 2010). Young children are becoming overweight and obese along with being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes more frequently. They are making poor dietary choices, inadequate physical activity, and spending too much screen time all contributing to the obesity crisis. One of the effective solutions to reversing the trend of childhood obesity is to provide safe, affordable and accessible after-school health and physical fitness educational programs for all school ages across the nation.

Team BLAZE (Beginning Life with AmaZing Examples) is a project designed to decrease childhood obesity in low income school districts. Team BLAZE is a school based program that incorporates healthy nutritional options along with daily physical activities within a safe learning environment to low income regions in America. The program initially focuses on children ages 5-17 in the rural Mississippi Delta, where obesity rates “far exceed those of the state and nation” (Gamble et al., 2012, p 478). Team BLAZE is modeled after Save the Children’s CHANGE (Creating Healthy, Active and Nurturing Growing-Up Environments) study, a 2-year (2007-2009) randomized, controlled, community and school-based intervention to prevent unhealthy weight gain among rural school aged children (Save the Children, 2008). The CHANGE study used an innovative, multicomponent community-based intervention in rural America to improve the diets of children and proved to be successful in lowering rates of obesity at the studied locations (Save the Children, 2008). Likewise, Team BLAZE uses a multidirectional approach by targeting changes in school nutrition,

Social learning theory, developed by Bandura, discusses how people learn from one another through observation, modeling, and imitation bridging an individual’s attention, memory and motivation. Social learning theory identifies the importance of cognition, observable behavior, individual self-efficacy, and the extent of how the events surrounding an individual affect them; their locus of control. Social learning theory also looks at individual problem behavior being influenced by positive or negative reinforcement (Ashford & LeCroy, 2012).

Childhood obesity has been and still is a problem in Chicago. "Children in Chicago have higher overweight and obesity prevalence rates than US Children in the same age groups" (CLOCC, 2013). Our youth are very limited in their built environments, thus creating a lack of excerise for our children. Open space is at a premium in the city. Housing is built sometimes inches from one another. Some communities simply don't have much area for kids to play and exercise. In order to help reduce the amount of obese children, our families, schools, and communities need to come together and create a plan.

Childhood obesity has expanded tremendously within the past thirty years (CDC, 2015). It is not only a state, but also a nationwide issue. For many children, they depend on their school lunches to provide them the nutritious meals they cannot afford to have at home. As a community, we need to get our children into better shape. Not only will they become more astute, but they will also live healthier lifestyles, and have less health complications as they age. When you are overweight or obese, you are much more likely to develop health problems like heart disease, diabetes, or even a stroke. It is our responsibility as a community, state, and nation to offer nutritious meals and activities for our youth and future.

This section of the evaluation describes the population and sample, sampling procedures, instrumentation, data collection procedures, and analysis process of the evaluation. Given the enormity of the obesity epidemic, the question arises as to where efforts should be focused to most effectively address to the problem. The most effective strategy to combat the obesity epidemic would be to develop and employ prevention and intervention plan targeted towards children and adolescents. As it has been found that behavioral change is an essential component of both prevention and management programs for childhood obesity, we identify this age group as these are the formative years in setting the foundation for better life choices. By targeting this group, research has found that they are far more receptive and responsive to efforts directed at changing behavior, increases the likelihood that positive results will be achieved. In this effort we have gathered quantitative and qualitative data that has produced the best methods for this evaluation; and it will enable further design and development of other programs and initiatives at the conclusion of this assessment.

Immediate and Life-Long Consequences of Childhood Obesity: How Families and Schools Can Work Together to End Childhood Obesity

According to Healthy People 2020, “Schools have more influence on the lives of young people than any other social institution except the family and provide a setting in which friendship networks develop, socialization occurs, and norms that govern behavior are developed and reinforced.” This intervention is considered an original concept which will improve individual’s knowledge and reinforce behavior change towards obesity. Without knowing the proper information, students can’t properly weigh the advantages and disadvantages of physical activity in regards to obesity. The aim of the activity will be to improve the lives of students and help reduce their risk of chronic diseases, so they can live longer and healthier

According to Payne (2014), Social Learning Theory is the idea that “learning is gained by people seeing behavior going on around them and thinking about what they see” (Payne, 2014). Payne goes on to state, “most people learn practical skills or behavior by watching a demonstration of what to do and experimenting while in a supportive environment; receiving feedback and encouragement are an important part of this” (Payne, 2014). Out of the Social Learning theory, skills training programs were developed, much like the Corrective Thinking

The “Shape It Up,” after-school fitness program is designed to encourage our youth to become physically active and help prevent the childhood obesity epidemic faced by our youth. In society today, there is an increased need for our youth to be involved in physical education activities and to support the battle against health problems resulting from obesity. In 2015, the American Heart Association reported that one in three teenagers in the United States of America is considered overweight and obese; childhood obesity has become one of the nation’s main concerns. In addition, there is an substantial need for more after-school programming in the state of Mississippi. According to the After-school Alliance, 88,960 students in the state arrive

The goals of obesity prevention in children are to develop through focused social change that stimulates:

To slow this epidemic of childhood obesity, physical activity needs to be put back in these children’s lives.

Review studies on the efficacy of interventions (e.g. Boon & Clysedale (2005) indicate that most childhood obesity interventions produce only meager results, creating the need for better well-researched and more effective programs that are catered towards a specific age and ethnic as well as socio-economic class structure. This is where we come in premising our programs on coherent and reliable research and developing instruments to measure the impact of our programs and closely monitor change.