Healthcare Assignment: Obesity in Young Children & Adolescents

Question

Task:

Write a well-researched report on healthcare assignment on the case of obesity in young children and adolescents.

Answer

2. Summary of the project
The study prepared in the healthcare assignment is all about obesity in young children and adolescents. In the stage of lay description, participants will be mentioned along with survey procedures. For survey questionnaires, age group and overall illustration are going to be framed in the assignment. Research aims and significance of the study will be introduced. Students aged 4 to 18 years old are chosen for the study. The significance of obesity is going to be evaluated in the study. In terms of research methodology, survey questionnaires will be used to gather data regarding the topic. The authority of the school helps the researchers to distribute the questions to the targeted participants. After completing the data collection, the management of the school will send the outcomes or results of the survey to the researchers. Moreover, the number of samples will be 100. Recruitment strategy and risk management strategy will be evaluated in the entire study.

3. Lay description
Obesity is a serious issue in young children and adolescents at risk for poor health. It has been evaluated that obesity prevalence among adolescents and young children are too high. Research suggests that the prevalence of obesity affected around 13.7 million young children and adolescents. To collect data regarding obesity among young children and adolescents' children aged between 4-18 years old will participate. In this perspective, the weight will be measured for every child and adolescent. In obesity, the lifestyle of students and young children is one of the core factors (Robinson et al., 2017). The evaluation of daily lifestyle is associated with the significant aspects of obesity for young children and adolescents. students of the educational institutes about their daily lifestyles.

The survey will be conducted among children aged 4 to 9 years old. The form of survey questionnaires will be filled by the parents of those students. In this regard, parents must be conscious about the health of their children for providing adequate information in terms of obesity of students. Students aged between 10-18 years old will be engaged to fill up the survey form, personally, with help from parents if required.

In the survey form, students will answer all the questions regarding their health in addressing obesity for young children and adolescents. The questionnaire will mainly contain questions regarding the food habits, lifestyle, activities that the children are engaged in and aspects as such, to identify the cause of obesity among young children and adolescents. The researcher will set up the survey questions for the students and will be sent to the school authority via E-mail. To complete the whole survey process, the school authority will choose random students from the school. It is required that the parents of the students should be conscious of daily lifestyles and food habits, to complete the survey questionnaire. The participants must be aware of daily activities, lifestyles and food habits to measure the impact of obesity for young children and adolescents. After collecting data from the participants, the final report or outcomes will be delivered to the researchers via E-mail by the authority of the school.

4. Research aim and significance
The research aims to investigate the prevalence of obesity among young children as well as adolescents, identify the cause of obesity among them and evaluate strategies for overcoming this issue of obesity.

The research questions for the study can be enlisted as follows:

• What is the extent of prevalence of obesity among young children and adolescents, in the context of Australia?
• What are the causative agents of obesity among school-going children?
• What strategies can be adopted for mitigating the issue of obesity among the target study population?

As cited by Pont, Puhl, Cook & Slusser (2017), obesity is a serious problem for young children and adolescents aged between 4 to 18 years old. Research suggests that obesity prevalence 13.9% among the age group between 2 to 5 years old. 18% prevalence between the age group 6 to 11 years old and 20.6% in the age group between 12-19 years old. It has been evidenced that obesity is a more common aspect among young children and adolescents.

In young children and adolescents, obesity indicates the tendency to gain weight for the students. Obesity is most commonly evidenced by the age group between 5 to 6 years old. The causes of obesity are more complex and genetics. Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol is one of the most significant issues of obesity for young children and adolescents.

In terms of causes of obesity, children become obsessed due to a variety of reasons. The most common causes are associated with genetic factors, daily lifestyles, eating habits, and lack of physical activities. Diet and daily activities play a vital role in determining a child's weight (Bahreynian et al., 2017). It has been evaluated that many causes are integrated with obesity for the children and adolescents who belong between the age group 4 to 18 years old. An unhealthy diet is one of the most common causes of obesity for children in the modern era. The parents of the children are not aware of the eating habits of their child. Lack of exercise is another reason for obesity. Children who do not engage with daily exercise have a much better chance to gain more weight because they don't burn calories.

Children's obesity is associated with increased risks of emotional problems. It is observed that teens with obesity tend to have low self-esteem and are less popular among the friend circle and society. The most common physical consequences of obesity for children and adolescents include risk of heart disease, diabetes, breathing problems, trouble sleeping, joint pain and hormonal changes.

As obesity is considered a serious issue, it must be managed. In the absence of physical disorder, the most potent way to reduce the weight of the children and adolescents is to decrease the numbers of calories being eaten and enhance the level of physical activities. As opined by Ells et al., (2018), healthy eating habits and regular exercise can control weight for the children and adolescent. To manage obesity in children, it is essential to start a weight management program and change eating habits.

The children who suffer from obesity should consume fewer calories. Moreover, physical activities must be increased in their daily routine. An obese adolescent must follow a prescribed diet routine and exercise regularly to meet the desired weight. For the parents from the age group between 4 to 18 years old must be conscious about the health of their children. A comprehensive treatment plan is required to reduce emotional problems in children (Seo et al., 2019). Moreover, parents of children and adolescents should be aware of what their child eats in school.

5. Research methodology
In terms of data collection, survey questionnaires data collection techniques will be used to collect necessary data from the participants regarding the obesity of young children and adolescents. The researchers will frame all the questions related to obesity in young children and adolescents. It has been evaluated that the survey questionnaire is more creative to meet the goals of any research. The survey questions will be framed regarding causes of obesity, outcomes of obesity, the impact of lifestyle and daily activities. The participants of the survey will be chosen from the students of the school-age between 4 to 18 years young children. The researchers will send a set of questions to the authority and management of the educational institute. The authority of the school will distribute all the questions to the targeted students.

The management of the school will have the responsibilities to complete the entire research. Parents of the students' age between 4 to 10 years old will fill-up the form of the questions. In this regard, parents of the children must be aware of weight, height and daily eating habits (Ikart, 2019). Without knowing the lifestyles of the children, it will be difficult to fill the form appropriately. A huge responsibility will be taken by the authority of the education sector. The management will distribute the questions to the participants. Students who belong to the age group between 11 to 18 years old will fill-up the form of survey questions on their own. In this perspective, the respected students must ensure a detailed idea about their weight, height, lifestyle, daily routine and daily activities. After completing the methods of data collection, the authority of the educational sector will send all the feedback and outcomes of data collection to the researchers via E-mail.

To collect data, 15 days will be taken for data collection and 5 days for writing the project. For analysing data, graphs and charts, prepared through Microsoft Excel, as well as measures of central tendency, in regards to the raw data collected, will be used.

Research philosophy
The researchers will use positivism research philosophy to evaluate the knowledge of human experience. The research philosophy is very helpful to maintain a minimal interaction with the participants while carrying out the research (Mlikotic, Parker & Rajapakshe, 2016). The researchers feel independent with the assistance of the research philosophy. It helps the researchers to judge all three essential activities with logic. It can be justified that positivism research philosophy will enable the researchers of the study to maintain a minimal interaction with their participants. Moreover, the research philosophy will help the researchers to understand the human mind and experiences based on their feedback and answers to the selected research questions.

Research approach
In the study, researchers will use a deductive research approach. The research approach can be explained by the means of hypothesis. Deductive research starts with an expected pattern against the process of observation. A causal relationship between variables and concepts are developed in the research approach (Ryan, 2018). In this perspective, the deductive approach will assist the researcher to gain effective ideas regarding the causal relationship between concepts and variables in terms of obesity for young children and adolescents.

6. Recruitment and participants
The target participants are the school going students of the educational institute age between 4 to 18 years old. In terms of recruitment strategy, the authority of the school will choose students randomly who are conscious of obesity. Data will be collected without health issues to discover differences. In the study, there is no direct recruitment. The participants must be eager to participate in the survey (Woiceshyn & Daellenbach, 2018). Moreover, the participants should be conscious of their health.

Sample
The sample size of the study will be 100 students within Australia, aged between 4 to 18 years.

7. Risk management
In the terms of data collection through a survey, some common risks might have occurred. Participants may not feel encouraged to provide accurate answers to the survey questions. As there is no face to face interaction with the participant, respondents can be demotivated with the procedures of data collection. Respondents might skip providing information regarding obesity of their own. Sometimes, the method of survey questionnaires could lead to unclear data (Korableva, Gorelov, & Shulha, 2017).

If participants feel upset and distressed while answering the research question, the researchers will have the ability to encourage the participants. It is obvious that having enough knowledge about obesity of their health, the children and adolescents might be upset. However, the researchers will draw effective solutions to reduce the level of obesity for the participants.

Risk management strategy · The researcher and authority of the school will encourage and support the participants to address the potential solution to obesity.

·

As there will be no face to face interaction with the students, a close relationship with the participants will be prioritized. The researchers will provide a diet chart for managing weight to the participants. Moreover, for motivating them inspirational quotes will be provided to the participants.

8. Consent
Obtaining and Documenting Consent

How will informed consent be obtained/recorded?

? Signed consent form

Recorded verbal consent

? Implied by the return of the survey

9. Information protection
For confidentiality, re-identifiable data will be used.

To ensure data security, data will be stored in the Pen drive and over password-protected systems. Only the researchers involved in the research activities for a particular topic will be allowed access to the data. The forms will be coded, to ensure the protection of confidentiality of delicate information like the name of the student, their weight, BMI and other such information.

10. Research tools

Survey questionnaire
(N.B. If you are parent, please fill-up the details of your child herein)

Demographic Questions:

1. Please tick on your age group.

• 4- 6 years
• 7-9 years
• 10-14 years
• 15-18 years

2. Please mention your gender.

• Male
• Female

3. Please tick on your correct weight group

• Below 15 kg
• 15-25 kgs
• 26-35 kgs
• 36-45 kgs
• Above 45 kgs

4. Please tick on your height

• Below 100cm
• 100-120cm
• 121-140cm
• 141-160cm
• Above 160cm

Analytical Questions

5. How many times per week do you exercise rigorously?

• 1-2 times
• 3-4 times
• 5 or more times

6. How far do you agree to the fact that vegetables and fruits form an important and interesting part of our daily diet?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

7. How often do you eat your fruits and vegetables?

• Regularly, in every meal
• Regularly once
• Frequently but not regularly
• Rarely

8. Do you have a balanced diet regularly, which contains food from all the important categories like carbohydrates, proteins, fats and vitamins?

• Yes
• No

9. Do you have a fulfilling breakfast in the morning?

• Yes
• No

10. Do you tend to overeat or binge-eat often?

• Yes
• No

11. How often do you have fast foods like chips, fries, noodles etc.?

• Daily
• Once every two days
• Weekly twice
• Weekly once
• Rarely

12. How often do you eat out with your family?

• More than once every week
• Once every week
• Once every fortnight
• Once every month
• Rarely

13. How often do you go to play outdoor sports with your friends?

• Everyday
• Often
• On weekends
• Rarely

14. How likely are you to forego home-cooked meals for junk food/restaurant meals?

• Very likely
• Quite likely
• Neutral
• Quite unlikely
• Very unlikely

References
Bahreynian, M., Qorbani, M., Khaniabadi, B. M., Motlagh, M. E., Safari, O., Asayesh, H., & Kelishadi, R. (2017). Association between obesity and parental weight status in children and adolescents. Journal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology, 9(2), 111.

Ells, L. J., Rees, K., Brown, T., Mead, E., Al-Khudairy, L., Azevedo, L., ... & Rayco-Solon, P. (2018). Interventions for treating children and adolescents with overweight and obesity: an overview of Cochrane reviews. International Journal of Obesity, 42(11), 1823-1833.

Ikart, E. M. (2019). Survey questionnaire survey pretesting method: An evaluation of survey questionnaire via expert reviews technique. Asian Journal of Social Science Studies, 4(2), 1.

Korableva, O. N., Gorelov, N. A., & Shulha, M. V. (2017, September). Risk component of innovation management strategy. In European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (pp. 837-843). Academic Conferences International Limited.

Mlikotic, R., Parker, B., & Rajapakshe, R. (2016). Assessing the effects of participant preference and demographics in the usage of web-based survey questionnaires by women attending screening mammography in British Columbia. Healthcare assignment Journal of medical Internet research, 18(3), e70.

Pont, S. J., Puhl, R., Cook, S. R., & Slusser, W. (2017). Stigma experienced by children and adolescents with obesity. Pediatrics, 140(6).

Robinson, T. N., Banda, J. A., Hale, L., Lu, A. S., Fleming-Milici, F., Calvert, S. L., & Wartella, E. (2017). Screen media exposure and obesity in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 140(Supplement 2), S97-S101.

Ryan, G. (2018). Introduction to positivism, interpretivism and critical theory. Nurse researcher, 25(4), 41-49.

Seo, Y. G., Lim, H., Kim, Y., Ju, Y. S., Lee, H. J., Jang, H. B., ... & Park, K. H. (2019). The effect of a multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention on obesity status, body composition, physical fitness, and cardiometabolic risk markers in children and adolescents with obesity. Nutrients, 11(1), 137.

Woiceshyn, J., & Daellenbach, U. (2018). Evaluating inductive vs deductive research in management studies. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal.