Framing the Consequences of Childhood Obesity to Increase Public Support for Obesity Prevention Policy

Question description

Choose a case study from the World Health Organization Social Determinants of Health Case Studies website listed below, or any one of the case studies in the Unit 2 Case Studies folder in the Course Documents under Course Resources in the Table of Contents.

World Conference on Social Determinants of Health Case Studies: http://www.who.int/sdhconference/resources/case_studies/en/

Initial Response

Provide a short description of the case study you chose. Which of the three core functions of public health does the study fit into? Which of the essential public health services does it address? How is it addressing a public health problem?

Be sure to include a list of credible references to support your response. I have attached Rubric to help with assignment. Your initial response to the Discussion topic should be a minimum of 200 words. You should also provide at least two responses to your classmates that should be a minimum of 100 words. In your peer replies, you are encouraged to challenge responses to promote critical thinking on all sides of a discussion.

Classmate Post #1

I chose the case study “Framing the Consequences of Childhood Obesity to Increase Public Support for Obesity Prevention Policy”. I want to learn what the consequences of childhood obesity are and why we are allowing this to happen to our children. Obviously, America has a high rate of child obesity and we know that it’s very unhealthy and comes with lifelong consequences. I want to find out how extensive the consequences are and what we can do to prevent it.

This study falls under the core function of assessment, which focuses on monitoring health as well as diagnosing and investigating (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 2014). This case study addresses monitoring health status to identify and solve community health problems. It is important to monitor the lifestyles of individuals to see what some of the common denominators are. For example, if there is a spike in child obesity in children between the ages of 5-10 we can look into what the elementary schools are feeding them. Children are in school for most of their day so if schools can provide better quality and nutritious food and snacks, I believe it will be a start in decreasing the childhood obesity rate.

Reference:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (March 2014). The 10 Essential Public Health Services: An Overview. Retrieved fromhttps://www.cdc.gov/stltpublichealth/publichealthservices/essentialhealthservices.html

Gollust, Sarah E., et al. “Framing the Consequences of Childhood Obesity to Increase Public Support for Obesity Prevention Policy.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 103, no. 11, 2013, doi:10.2105/ajph.2013.301271.

Classmate Post #2

Hello everyone,

For this discussion, I chose the case study, “Kenya- The National Deworming program: Kenya’s experience.” In this case study, it educates people about the health problems of parasitic worms in school-aged children and helps with the de-worming process. In Kenya, there are intestinal parasitic worms in 56.8{0e601fc7fe3603dc36f9ca2f49ef4cd268b5950ef1bbcf1f795cc00e94cdd119} of school children (“World Conference on Social Determinants of Health,” 2017). With this deworming program being put into place, it not only eliminates the intestinal parasitic worms in the children; but, also allows teachers to be informed about other safety issues in the community that are causing the problems. By informing the educators about these problems, they can teach the students about water safety, health education, good hygiene practices, and different sanitation strategies to avoid the parasitic worms. This is a good program because not only do they cure the problem by deworming the children, but they also help prevent the issue from occurring.

The core function of public health that this study fits into would be assessment. Data is collected through the number of children suffering from these parasitic worms, and then the information is used to be able to assemble cures within the program. The information of the health within the community is also analyzed to be sure that this program is the right fit for the Kenya community. Along with statistics, this program uses real-life scenarios to determine how to address the deworming process for each child. With assessment being the core function of public health, it also is showing different health problems in the community that can be causing the ingestion of the worms, such as the poor water supply. This case seems to address a few of the public health services, including monitoring health status to identify community health problems and inform, educate and empower people about health issues. This case is both monitoring the health in the community as well as working on educating others on how to prevent the problems from occurring.

This case addresses a public health problem in Kenya by curing children who have been infected with a parasitic worm. This will help the future of Kenya because there will be many more children able to be in school learning, instead of sick or passing away. If these worms are not taken care of, it will lead to the death of many children. This case is not only addressing the fact that children are being infected by the worms, but it is also addressing on how to prevent the problem by occurring. By being aware of the drinking water and sanitation of certain areas, it can prevent the spread of the parasite, and keep Kenya’s children safe. If the children are able to stay in school, it will lead to higher paying jobs for them in the future, and less poverty issues as well.

-Shannon Harris

References:

Turnock, B. J. (2016). Essentials of public health (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

World Conference on Social Determinants of Health. (2017, September 25). Retrieved June 7, 2018, from http://www.who.int/sdhconference/resources/case_st…