Details: A PICOT starts with a designated patient population in a particular .....(childhood obesity)

Grand Canyon University: NRS-490

According to the American Heart Association (2018), one third of the children and adolescents are affected by obesity in the United States. Going into the millennium, its prevalence had tripled so much so that it is regarded as the number one health concerns among parents today. In other parts of the world, the problem is rapidly growing, and it affects middle class and low-income countries alike. A research conducted by Karnik & Kanekar (2012) estimated that over 41 million children in Africa and Asia under the age of five were found to be obese. Of these, it has been estimated that over 116,000 die each year. Comment by Melissa Reedy: This is a little awkward as written but contains great information, perhaps write it as a more of a comparative type of paragraph where you are introducing the issue of obesity in America but comparing to the fact that it is also an issue worldwide

Children with obesity have a higher risk of getting serious diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Diabetes type II, coronary heart disease, respiratory and stroke problems (Hales, Carroll, Fryar & Ogden, 2017). Additionally, most of them grow up with the condition, which results to more health issues that are psychological in nature, including low self-esteem, negative body image and sometimes depression. It is also true that excessive body weight is greatly associated with earlier risk of obesity-related induced disease and death in adulthood (Cunningham, Kramer & Narayan, 2014).

The occurrence of obesity in the United states of American can be attributed to the availability of “good- tasting” food with high calorie. Furthermore, these foods are not expensive, yet their health effects are disastrous. This, accompanied with a lack of physical activity and inactive behavior results to childhood obesity. All these factors are imparted by family characteristics and environmental factors. For instance, if parents cultivate the culture of eating junk food at home from a young age, chances are that their child will become obese. Watching TV and other inactive activities should also be discouraged lest children become dormant. Advertisements that encourage the consumption of junk food also attracts children into poor eating habits. It is also important to note that genetic factors of the family can also contribute to child obesity (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002) Comment by Melissa Reedy: Capitalize Comment by Melissa Reedy: Calories and then comma Comment by Melissa Reedy: In

The impact of Child obesity goes beyond health-related issues as it can negatively impact the child’s social status. More often it brings anxiety, self- esteem and depression because obese children tend to be more vulnerable than the normal kids in school (Ludwig, 2018). It is also associated with eating disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa. All these affect the health of the child, its wellbeing and leads to poor performance because of the low quality of life the child is experiencing (Reilly, & Kelly, 2011). Comment by Melissa Reedy: No capitalization Comment by Melissa Reedy: I don’t know that I would use normal here because really what defines normal? Comment by Melissa Reedy: A child is not an it

Clearly, so much needs to be done to address this issue. First, environmental change is inevitable, and perhaps the key and solution to obesity in children. Instead of having vending machines in schools that are full of 'junk' foods, parents and schools should opt for healthier food options, emphasize on physical activities and constantly remind kids about the effects of unhealthy eating habits. The government should set tighter rules and regulation on advertisements of fast-foods by limiting them. All said and done, obtaining and maintaining an appropriate body weight is extremely important and the best way to achieve this is by doing it gradually. Children and adolescents should measure their weight relative to their height using the Body Mass Index (BMI) (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014).

In conclusion, families and the health care professionals should understand that childhood obesity is a serious issue in the society today. We ought to know that there is no approved medication for childhood obesity in American, for fact, the American association of pediatrician deter the use of such medication to control the weight in children. The current efforts to help tame it cannot be disregarded, but more needs to be done. Its effects are long lasting, meaning that it is threatening the future of millions of children that can easily be avoided. All healthcare practitioners should therefore join hands and fight it with all available means such as educating parents on how to promote healthy lifestyle for a greater future (Bleich, Segal, Wilson, & Wang, 2013).

1. The problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need that will be the focus of the project-you have well defined the issue and yes, some solutions but not YOUR solution-remember this is YOUR project-you need to define your problem and come up a solution to this problem that YOU are going to implement.

2. The setting or context in which the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need can be observed-you need to give a specific setting-do you work in a school where you are noticing and increase in childhood obesity and you are going to tackle making the vending machines have more healthy choices?? You need to define your setting

3. A description providing a high level of detail regarding the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need.

4. Impact of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need on the work environment, the quality of care provided by staff, and patient outcomes.

5. Significance of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need and its implications to nursing.

6. A proposed solution to the identified project topic-you need to be specific to what you are going to do for your proposed issue.

References

Bleich, S. N., Segal, J., Wu, Y., Wilson, R., & Wang, Y. (2013). Systematic review of community-based childhood obesity prevention studies. Pediatrics, 132(1), e201-e210.

Cunningham, S. A., Kramer, M. R., & Narayan, K. V. (2014). Incidence of childhood obesity in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(5), 403-411.

Ebbeling, C. B., Pawlak, D. B., & Ludwig, D. S. (2002). Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure. The lancet, 360(9331), 473-482.

Hales, C. M., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2017). Prevalence of obesity among adults and youth: United States, 2015-2016. US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.

Han, J. C., Lawlor, D. A., & Kimm, S. Y. (2010). Childhood obesity. The Lancet, 375(9727), 1737-1748.

Karnik, S., & Kanekar, A. (2012). Childhood obesity: a global public health crisis. International journal of preventive medicine, 3(1), 1.

Ludwig, D. S. (2018). Epidemic Childhood Obesity: Not Yet the End of the Beginning. Pediatrics, e20174078.

Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. M. (2014). Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. Jama, 311(8), 806-814.

Reilly, J. J., & Kelly, J. (2011). Long-term impact of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence on morbidity and premature mortality in adulthood: systematic review. International journal of obesity, 35(7), 891.