Revise questions

Introduction

In the current generation, there has been a rise in overweight and obesity statistics. Research suggests that, since 1975, the number of people now overweight and obese has more than tripled. The current number of people who are overweight stands at 1.9 billion people while 605 million people of them are obese. The number of other diseases associated with this condition is many and include heart conditions, diabetes type 2, and some types of cancer. As people with these conditions get older, there are increased chances and risks for developing these life-threatening conditions. Continual research must be conducted to keep our data updated regarding the prevalence of this condition. Data on its prevalence will enable stakeholders such as healthcare facilities, government, and healthcare researchers to come up with strategies that will reduce the current prevalence and formulate policies and methodologies of how to deal with the condition. Healthcare facilities need to identify the people with the condition and be ever ready to take care of them while offering counsel that will be beneficial for the life of the person. There have been different research that has been done to examine the prevalence of overweight and obesity. The PICOT question aimed at establishing the prevalence of obesity in adolescents, its current trends, and how we can use the data to ease the occurrence of other diseases caused by obesity. 1. 1: Unsatisfactory Anticipated outcomes for the PICOT are omitted or are unrealistic. Comparison of research article outcomes to anticipated outcomes is incomplete.

Quantitative Studies

This paper analyzes two quantitative research-based articles that employ evidence-based interventions that relate to the prevalence of obesity and their causes to answer the PICOT question. The reviewed articles were published by Al-Hussaini et al. (2019) and Ahmad et al. (2018). In the subsequent sections, we shall review in detail what the two researchers came up with.

Background Information: You were able to describe some of the elements for the background but did not clearly describe each of the elements.

In the first article, Ahmad et al. (2018) studied the trends and prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in China from the year 2011 to 2015. The purpose of the study was to research and analyze the prevalence rates and trends for overweight and obesity among children in China. The significance of the study would provide every stakeholder in the healthcare sector with up-to-date information that would be used in policy making, planning, and strategizing on how to control and treat the condition. In the article, they first acknowledge that childhood obesity is a major public health concern that needs to be urgent attention to curb its growth and risks associated with it. The literature review that they had conducted shows that the prevalence of childhood obesity and overweight seems to be stagnating in more developing countries when compared to low and middle-income countries. Children and adolescents of the current generation are seen to grow in obesogenic environments which would impress on them gaining weight and being obese. Previously as late as 1985 in China, being obese and overweight was not a major health concern as their prevalence stood at 0.1% and 1.1% respectively (Zhang et al., 2018). But this is no longer the case as rapid economic growth in China had a major impact on the eating and physical behavior of people in China. A study conducted in 2012, concluded that there was a significant increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity as it recorded a prevalence rate of 9.6% and 6.4% respectively from children aged between 6-17 years (Zhang et al., 2018). In developed countries such as Germany, the UK, and the US, there has been quite a significant stabilization of these rates but in other countries, this is not the case, especially in the prevalence rate s of children aged from 6 to 17 years (Zhang et al., 2018). The research question was what the causes of the recent trends are concerning obesity in children and adolescents. Research from other countries can be used to some extent to relate to issues facing another country.

The second research was done by Al-Hussaini et al. (2019). The purpose of the study was to evaluate how rampant overweight and obesity among children adolescents in Saudi Arabia and determine its trend in Riyadh City over the last twenty years. Significance of the study would ensure nurses and every other stakeholder in the healthcare sector had relevant information to tackle the issue and can advise patients on the need for lifestyle changes. The objective would see to it that policymakers had the prerequisite knowledge that would be needed to formulate relevant intervention measures that concerned obesity. The study used the World Health Organizations criteria to define overweight and obesity, used data comparable to the aim of the study by using age (6-18 years) and the region that the study tries to evaluate (Al-Hussaini et al., 2019). The study acknowledged that there are more than 107.1 million children and over 603.7 million adults with obesity as per research conducted back in 2015 and it was related to the risk of other comorbidities such as metabolic syndrome. Fatty liver acids, premature deaths, and cardiovascular diseases (Al-Hussaini et al., 2019). This correlation made the World Health Organization consider it a public health threat, especially to children. The significant economic prosperity that has been experienced in Saudi Arabia in the last thirty years has led to lifestyle change that in turn led to an increase in cases of overweight and obesity. Few past studies done in the country were related to the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents and others were old meaning they could not be relied upon to give credible and reliable data for current use. This study, however, sought to reestablish the prevailing trends and prevalence of the condition that all necessary stakeholders could use to create policies and assess how they could help and plan for the public.

Methods of Study: Good general discussion of the method used, but you did not include the benefits and limitations of the method used

The first research utilized research by the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) and China Nutrition Transition Cohort Survey (CNTCS). The two databases had information that had been continually collected from 15 provinces (Zhang et al., 2018). The data collection method that was used included a multi-stage, stratified, random cluster sampling design that represented the population well. The sample size comprised 1458 children and 1084 adolescents. The data collected was subdivided into age, gender, living area, and geographic regions. Data analysis used t-tests to analyze differences and trends while chi-square analyses were used to examine the prevalence of overweight and obesity (Zhang et al., 2018). The second research involved a cross-sectional population-based study that measured various aspects related to overweight and obesity such as height, weight, and body mass for children aged between 6-16 years in Riyadh. the study used students from 104 schools around the city and used the probability proportionate sampling procedure (Al-Hussaini et al., 2019). The study used frequencies and percentages to represent categorical variables such as age groups, gender, and region while variables such as socioeconomic score and age were represented as mean. T-tests were used to analyze categorical variables while chi-square was used to determine the significant association between categorical variables (Al-Hussaini et al., 2019).

Results of the study: Limited discussion of the results for the two studies. The results from the first study suggested that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 12.25% in boys while in girls it was 8.4%. There was a significant increase in the BMI results among adolescents, but this was not noted among children (Zhang et al., 2018).

From the second study, results suggested that there was a prevalence of 13.4% and 18.2% for overweight and obesity respectively. Obesity prevalence among boys was at 18.4% while that for girls stood at 18% (Al-Hussaini et al., 2019). The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children was lower than that of adolescents.

Ethical Considerations

The studies acknowledged that data was to be collected from minors and therefore sought out consent from their parents and guardians to collect data from the students. For all, the subjects, the parents gave written agreements for the participation of their children in the research. The studies were also approved by the necessary authority such as the institutional review boards. The participants were well-informed of what the study entailed, and their privacy was upheld by not revealing the details of the persons involved in the study.

Conclusion

In both studies, they concluded that the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity among teenagers is high. Boys were the most affected as they had higher rates of obesity and overweight in both studies. Considering this, there is a need for relevant stakeholders to be involved in formulating policies that would benefit the public in matters of obesity. These policies need to be sustainable and intensive to reduce the ever-rising prevalence among adolescents. The up-to-date information on this topic provided by various articles should be used to monitor the trends and try to curb the prevailing rates.

References

Al-Hussaini, A., Bashir, M., Khormi, M., AlTuraiki, M., Alkhamis, W., Alrajhi, M., & Halal, T. (2019). Overweight and obesity among Saudi children and adolescents: Where do we stand today? Saudi Journal of Gastroenterology, 25(4), 229. https://doi.org/10.4103/sjg.sjg_617_18

Zhang, J., Wang, H., Wang, Z., Du, W., Su, C., Zhang, J., Jiang, H., Jia, X., Huang, F., Ouyang, Y., Wang, Y., & Zhang, B. (2018). Prevalence and stabilizing trends in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in China, 2011–2015. BMC Public Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5483-9