This article covers Community Health Improvement Plan Sample. The community health assessment in Manatee County focused on children of the minority, specifically African American aged 4 to 15 years. The primary health concern identified in this group was childhood obesity.
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Community Health Improvement Plan Sample
The community health assessment in Manatee County focused on children of the minority, specifically African American aged 4 to 15 years. The primary health concern identified in this group was childhood obesity. African American children in Manatee County were vulnerable to childhood obesity in the region for various reasons. These included lack of adequate physical activity, poor nutrition, which mainly composed of processed foods, with high carbohydrate, sugar, and fat content. In addition, lack of enough fruits and vegetables was evident in their nutrition.
Summary of Community Health Assessment
Childhood obesity has various implications on the affected individuals in Manatee County. Empirical evidence indicate that childhood obesity have significant impacts on the physical and psychosocial health of the affected individual. First, childhood obesity is a precursor to adult obesity, which is a major cause of various cardiovascular disorders. Overweight and obese children and adolescents are at risk of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and abnormal glucose tolerance. In addition, childhood obesity causes hepatic, renal and muscoskeletal complications, which undermines the child’s quality of life (Griffiths, Parsons & Hill, 2010).
Obese and overweight children are at higher risk of type 2 diabetes than those with normal weight (Belot, & James, 2011). Research studies on the psychosocial impacts of obesity in children indicate that they suffer from low esteem, which could lead to social isolation and poor academic achievement. Obese children experience negative emotional states, such as loneliness, sadness and nervousness, which increase their vulnerability to engage in risky behavior, including drug abuse and teenage sex (Belot, & James, 2011). Moreover, childhood obesity limits physical activity in children, a situation that aggravates the problem. Empirical research studies also indicate that obese children suffer from negative connotations associated with their state such as laziness, being heavy feeders, poor health, academic and social ineptness and poor hygiene (Griffiths, Parsons & Hill, 2010).
Evidence based intervention Portfolio
Childhood obesity among African American children in Manatee County is closely associated with social and economic inequality of the minority group. Statistical evidence indicates that African American households in Manatee County have higher unemployment rates compared to the white community (FDH, 2017). Additionally, annual household income of the African American community is significantly lower than that of the white community. Moreover, there was notable health inequality, in terms of access to healthcare services in Manatee County. African Americans had the lowest rate of groups with health insurance in the county and in the state of Florida in 2015 (FDH, 2016). In his regard, African American households are at a disadvantage in regards to critical health determinants.
The identified risk factors for childhood obesity in Manatee County included inactivity, consumption of unhealthy diet comprising of processed foods with high sugar, fat and carbohydrate content. Moreover consumption diets without adequate fruits and vegetables were other risk factors (FDH, 2016). To address the issue of childhood obesity in Manatee County, three evidence based interventions are recommended. These include dietary modification, increasing physical activity and cognitive behavioral therapy
Dietary or Nutritional Intervention
This intervention focuses on modifying the nutritional components of diet provided to the children. Excessive consumption of high energy diets, comprising of simple sugars, carbohydrates, and saturated fats is a major risk factor of childhood obesity (Waters, et al, 2011). In this regard, dietary intervention is designed to reduce the intake of diet with high energy content and increase consumption of food rich in omega 3 polyunsaturated fats and micronutrients. These types of foods include fish, whole meal grains, fruits and vegetables (Waters, et al, 2011).
The objective of dietary modification is to reduce unhealthy weight gain among African American children in Manatee County, which is associated with consumption of high energy content. The goal is to reduce the rate of overweigh and obese children in the county by 50% within a year. The targeted population is African American children, aged 4 to 15 years old in Manatee County.
The targeted population mostly comprise of school going children. Dietary modification intervention is normally applicable in controlled environments such as schools through feeding programs (Waters, et al, 2011). In this case, the children would be provided with meals with reduced content of high energy foods, saturated fats and simple sugars. In addition, it would involve increasing the ration of fruits and vegetables in their meals. The result for this evidence based intervention includes reducing the body mass index (BMI) of the children, reduce the fat content in the body and reducing prevalence of obesity and overweigh in the affected group.
Dietary modification is highly recommended to address childhood obesity among the children in Manatee County because of various reasons. First, the health assessment of the targeted population indicated that although there is increased consumption of high energy diet among the affected children, Manatee County has abundance of healthy food sources which includes sea food and fresh farm products. These include whole meal diet, fruits and vegetables. Secondly, empirical evidence indicates that diet modification is highly effective intervention for controlling and preventing obesity in both children and adults (Martin, Saunders, Shenkin & Sproule, 2014). In this case, it is suitable for the affected school going children in the county because it can be complemented with physical education in learning institutions, resulting to better outcomes.
Increasing physical activity
The evidenced based intervention is founded on the principle of increasing the capacity of the body to increase metabolism of stored fat to release energy (Waters, et al, 2011). Increasing physical activity especially in school going children entails promoting physical education and incorporating extracurricular activity in learning programs. Clinical evidence indicates that increasing physical activity in children reduced obesity and has promotes cognitive development, in addition to improving academic performance of children (Griffiths, Parsons & Hill, 2010).
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The action area of physical activity intervention is at schools in Manatee County and it would involve emphasis on physical education. The goal of physical activity intervention is to reduce obesity and promote health and wellness of the children in the Manatee County. The objective of the intervention is to promote physical activity as an effective intervention of preventing childhood obesity especially among school going children. In this regards, it targets school going children aged 4-15 years in learning institutions in Manatee county.
The expected results are reducing childhood obesity prevalence in the county and maintaining normal body mass index among the children and increasing physical activity levels. Physical activity is highly recommended to resolve the issue of the childhood obesity in Manatee County because the educational curriculum in the state of Florida recognizes physical education as one critical element of holistic learning. In this regard, the intervention is compatible with the established educational programs in the county and is implementable if educational stakeholders are involved. Moreover, increasing physical activity of the children could be combined with nutritional intervention to enhance attainment of the anticipated health outcomes.
Cognitive behavior Therapy
Empirical evidence indicates that childhood obesity is also caused by various behavioral activities, such as excessive watching of television (Waters, et al, 2011). Children with low television exposure are less likely to have childhood obesity than those with high exposure (Waters, et al, 2011). High television exposure replaces activities that promote cognitive development such as physical exercises (Martin, Saunders, Shenkin & Sproule, 2014). Other behaviors that promote obesity in children includes lack of self-control, which results to increased consumption of unhealthy foods, especially those with high energy content such as sugars (Martin, Saunders, Shenkin & Sproule, 2014).
The objective of cognitive behavioral intervention is to promoting self-regulation in children, to avoid activities that are injurious to their health and embrace healthy lifestyles. The goal is to reduce obesity, increase physical activity and minimize consumption of unhealthy diet among children in Manatee County. The activities involved in this intervention include cognitive behavioral therapy to help in reducing impulsive behavior and promote self-regulation in children. This intervention does not fit children aged 4 to 15 years, once they are outside the school environment. In this regard, it would not adequately address the issue of childhood obesity without involvement of other stakeholders, especially parents and guardians.
Community Health Improvement Partnerships
In Manatee County, various partner organizations are involved in provision of different services and programs. Some of the existing services and programs in Manatee County provide services concerning adult obesity, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and mental, emotional and behavioral health among other programs.
In regards to childhood obesity and health, various organizations partner with the Manatee County to provide the relevant support. Some of the organizations include Children’s Movement of Florida, Whole Child Manatee, and Junior League of Manatee County. The common vision of these organizations is to promote healthy and holistic development of children in Manatee County. The Children’s Movement of Florida (CMF) is involved in promoting physical, intellectual and mental development of children in the county. Some of the programs that CMF supports related to the childhood obesity include health insurance, special needs mentoring and parenting.
Whole Child Manatee (WCM) is a child centered organization focusing on providing child oriented services for promoting health and involvement in the community through collaboration with parents. Some of the key services it offers include child safety, child health, after school programs and activities in addition to counseling among others. Junior League of Manatee County organization is focused at providing programs for prevention of childhood obesity and promoting health nutrition. These organizations coordinate and engage community stakeholders in Manatee County in various ways, which includes organizing conferences where members of the community participate to advance the health and wellbeing of children.
Additionally, the organizations organize interactive events and invite volunteers and other community members to participate. To measure the success of their initiatives, the organization conduct periodic assessments, in which they evaluate the goals they have achieved in respect to the established strategic goals. The improvements that could be made to ensure that the issue of childhood obesity is addressed effectively includes forming closer partnerships with educational institutions to ensure that children are informed about the need of physical activities, and healthy eating.
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Conclusion
Childhood obesity in Manatee County among the African American children is caused by various risks factors. These include excess consumption of processed and high energy content diet, high poverty levels, and lack of physical activity. The evidence based interventions to address the issue of childhood obesity in the county are nutritional modification, increasing physical activity and cognitive behavioral therapy. To ensure that these interventions are successfully implemented, it is important to collaborate with various organizations and stakeholders involved in children health in the community.
References
Belot, M.,& James, J(2011). Healthy school meals and educational outcomes. Journal of Health Economics, 30(3): 489–504.
Florida Department of Health, Division of Public Health Statistics & Performance Management. ( FDH)(2017). Florida Community Health Assessment Resource Tool Set [web content]. Retrieved October 10, 2017 from http://www.floridacharts.com
Florida Department of Health (FDH) (2016). Minority Health Profile- Black 2015. Retrieved October 11 2017, from http://www.flhealthcharts.com/ChartsReports/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=ChartsProfiles.MinorityHealthProfile-Black
Griffiths, L., Parsons, T., & Hill, A.J(2010). Self-esteem and quality of life in obese children and adolescents: a systematic review. International Journal of Pediatric Obesity 2010;5(4):282–304
Junior League of Manatee County.(n.d) available from http://jrleaguemanatee.org/?page=KidsintheKitchen
Martin A, Saunders, D., Shenkin, S., & Sproule, J. (2014). Lifestyle intervention for improving school achievement in overweight or obese children and adolescents. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD009728. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD009728.pub2
The Children Movement of Florida.(n.d). Available from http://childrensmovementflorida.org
Waters, E, et al.(2011). Interventions for preventing obesity in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 12. Art. No.: CD001871. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001871.pub3.
Whole Child Manatee.(n.d). Available from http://www.wholechildmanatee.com/Our-Community/Services.html.