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Health Promotion For Combating Obesity

Decent Essays

Childhood obesity prevalence rates have been steadily increasing in the United States and in 2010; it was identified in more than 42 million pre-schoolers (WHO, 2013). Obesity has various medical risks that are related to obesity in children including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, sleep apnoea, asthma, dyslipidaemia, metabolic syndrome, orthopaedic complications, and a reduced life expectancy. Health promotion to combat childhood obesity is therefore needed to prevent childhood obesity and the medical risks associated with obesity. The theoretical framework that will be used is the behaviour change wheel which would guide research on health promotion techniques to prevent obesity. This essay reviews literature on health promotion for combating obesity.
Childhood obesity prevalence rates have doubled up in the last decade and according to WHO, about 170 million children under 18 years are considered to be overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is mostly associated with poor objective and subjective health which often find its way into adulthood. This in turn leads to soaring health care costs due to the health complications related to obesity thus affecting economic growth. Due to these consequences, government and other concerned social institutions are focusing their attention on preventing childhood obesity.
The behaviour change wheel is a theoretical framework by Michie et al. which was developed using a wide review of existing frameworks (Michie, Van

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