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Running head: CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Childhood Obesity with Lifestyle Changes Radhika M. Patel Felician College

I pledge on my honor that I have neither given nor received inappropriate aid on this assignment.

Childhood obesity is a problem in the United States that has recently drawn significant attention. Much research has been done to understand the reasons for childhood obesity and techniques that can be implemented in order to reduce the occurrence of it. My cultural background encourages children to eat as much as possible. Eating habits are formed at an early age and it is imperative that proper nutrition and restrictions are taught to both the children and families as early as possible. In my culture, after a child says that he is full and finished eating, the parent usually adds more food onto the plate and insists that he eat just a little bit more. Often times, the food that is offered does not meet the dietary standards set forth by the Food and Drug Administration. It is imperative that parents or care givers from all cultures understand the importance of eating a well-balanced and healthy meal in order to reduce the risk of obesity. Children spend a good amount of their day in school, so ideally, that would be the best place to educate them on the importance of nutrition. My step daughter comes home from school and always makes it a point to tell me about the delicious cookies and cupcakes they had and if I could give her five dollars so that she can buy some more the next day. She does not ever mention the vegetables, proteins, or fruits that are available for purchase. If a child readily accepts and understands the significance of healthy food, then essentially obesity can be reduced. Children can then explain these guidelines to their parents and at home nutrition can also become healthier. My step daughter does not get enough education at home from her mother or from school in a nutrition course. Due to these problem- focused triggers, I decided to do evidence- based research on childhood obesity. Results from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) demonstrated that children and adolescence from the ages of 2- 16 currently have a

17% rate of obesity. The NHANES is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. This number is rising every year and studies show that lack of education is one of the leading factors that contribute to obesity. Schools are ideal settings for population based interventions to address obesity. Children spend approximately half of their waking hours in school. Schools provide 1 to 2 meals daily and are a natural setting for education about healthy food choices (Foster 2008). Formulation of a nutritional course that is both entertaining and informative is key in having the children comply with more appropriate eating habits. Children can also learn the importance of exercise and preparation of healthy food in this educational program which will also help them maintain an ideal weight. In order to have a healthy adult life, children need to start early at a younger age to prevent and remove obesity from their lives. Population of Problem, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) Question How does a nurse education program on healthy lifestyle help obese children ages 6- 12 to lose weight and or maintain a healthy weight? It will be evaluated by the number of obese children in a school at the end of each school year. Search of Literature Various search engines were used in finding the articles relevant to the PICO question. Google scholar was the most informative, yet frustrating. I chose the search option that would yield articles with patents to verify authenticity. My keywords were childhood obesity and quantitative studies to begin. It resulted in 46,600 items. I clicked on the first few results and found that it only provided the abstracts and in order to see the entire article, I had to purchase them. I then added free articles to the search and that yielded a few interesting articles on

interventions that are school based. I found that article insightful and full of a lot of information regarding the type of interventions that I wanted to incorporate in the educational aspect of the research. The other search engines I used were from the Felician College website. Ebsco host was the next one that I tried. I used the same keywords and amended the search to only display full text articles. About three or four articles had pieces of information that were pertinent to my research so I saved them and used them as a comparison to my initial article. Some of the articles stated that I could request it through the librarian, but I found that to be cumbersome and just used what I was able to obtain right then and there. I scanned the background, study designs, any bolded headings, and the discussions of each article to further narrow my choices. After choosing four articles based on their content, I chose one final one that I used as a primary source of information because that article had all the components necessary to effectively answer the PICO question.

Annotated Bibliography Foster, G., Sherman, S., Borradaile, K., Grundy, K., Vander Veur, S., Nachamani, J., Karpyn, A., & Kumanyika, S. (2008). A policy based school intervention to prevent overweight and obesity. Perdiatrics, 121(4). E794-e802. Doi: 10.1542/peds. 2007-1365 This article was a random control trial with interventions. It included the different interventions with the trial group and results indicated that the research confirms the benefits of education. 15% of children became overweight in the control group compared to only 7.5% in the intervention schools. The only problem I found with this study was the limited number of schools used. Adding more schools can give a more accurate measurement of more discernable data. The research demonstrates that education to the staff, students, and family contribute to effective weight control. The level of evidence contained in this article is Level II because it is a well-designed RCT. The level in and of itself does not tell the full worth of a study but is another tool that helps you think about the strengths and weaknesses of the study and the nature of the evidence provided in the findings and conclusions (LoBiondo-Woos & Haber, 2010). This article contained vital facts and statistics which are related to my research topic and PICO question.