Carlos Albizu University Childhood Obesity Discussion

Reply

Healthcare Policy and Economics APA Style Reply

Childhood Obesity Reply to each Peer about their post.

Definition of Policy Childhood Obesity Reply 1 to Teacher in regard to my post

excellent and well research responses you provided above on childhood obesity. How do you feel the healthcare administrator can play a vital role in improving the healthy lifestyles of children and reducing childhood obesity?

Thank you,

Professor Urmala

Childhood Obesity Reply to Priscilla:

In the United States, childhood obesity has always been a problem, which has put children and adolescents at a chance for poor health. Based on the data from 2015-2016, it “show that nearly 1 in 5 school-age children and young people aged 6 to 19 years in the United States has obesity” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). There are many factors that contribute to childhood obesity, such as physical activity, diet, genetics, etc. Because of the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity, schools have started to implement policies in order to reduce this problem.

The policy that I have found is called the Local School Wellness Policy, which is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This policy is “a written document that guides a local educational agency (LEA) or school district’s efforts to create supportive school nutrition and physical activity environments” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). With this policy, it mainly help to promote the wellness of the students, to reduce and prevent childhood obesity, and to combat the problems relating to physical inactivity and poor nutrition. Requirements of this policy includes school activities that promote wellness of the students, nutrition guidelines for all the foods that are sold on the school campus, policies for foods and drinks that are made available for students, etc. Overall, the local school wellness policy will help to ensure that schools give proper nutrition to the students and also help to ensure that there are a variety of physical activity for students to perform.

If I were a new healthcare administrator at a local public health department, the types of policies I would want to introduce to combat issues such as childhood obesity are the ones that emphasize the importance of good nutrition and physical activity. Education that focus on nutrition and physical activity should be provided for students and parents. This can help them to better understand the importance of how good nutrition and physical activity can contribute to the wellness and health of a person. With the knowledge that is obtained through education, the prevalence of childhood obesity can be prevented and reduced.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, May 29). Local School Wellness Policy. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/npao/wellness.htm.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, September 18). Obesity. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/index.htm.