week 3 project NSG 6999

Student Name

Patricia Marrero

MSN Program

Family Nurse Practitioner

Project Title

Childhood obesity

Week 1

State Your Clinical Question

[100 to 150 words]

· State your clinical question or topic for your capstone project proposal.

· What issue is the question/topic addressing?

· What are the reasons you selected this question/topic?

State your clinical question or topic for your capstone project

The clinical question addressed by the capstone project proposal in this case is obesity.

What issue is the question or topic addressing

The issue in this case is the childhood obesity and the adverse impacts of childhood obesity. The issue of childhood leads to the rise in the risk of being overweight past the age of 35. Child with this condition develop several chronic conditions, severe metabolic and heart illnesses which translates to increased mortality rate especially when they become adults.

The reasons for the selected question or topic

Obesity is described as having excessive fat accumulation that is not good for one’s health. About 4% of children and adolescents in the US are severely obese (Varness, Allen,Carrel, & Fost, 2009). Child obesity exposes children to comorbid conditions. Child obesity is now a full-blown epidemic. It has hugely affected the physical as well as the psychological health of children. Uncontrolled weight puts children at the risk of developing “adult illnesses” like high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, or heart disease at a tender age. Therefore, this makes the topic of interest to me because I want to research and learn on the strategies of preventing the increase rate of obesity in the country, causes of childhood obesity, ways of educating parents to safeguard their parents against the disease, and intervention and treatment methods. As a clinician, this information will provide me with adequate information that I will use to educate and create awareness among my patients and community on preventing childhood obesity.

Week 2

Background Information

[200 to 250 words]

Address the following questions/bullets in completing this section:

· Start at the starting point - What, Where, When, Why, and How?

· What is known about this topic or what is the evidence on this topic (Scoping Search)?

· What is the outcome of interest?

· What are the gaps in our understanding or knowing related to this topic?

· Start at the starting point - What, Where, When, Why, and How?

Child obesity is among health conditions that affect their health due to poor management. This leads to increased exposure of these children to other comorbidities such as severe metabolic and heart illnesses, high blood pressure conditions, and diabetes.

· What is known about this topic or what is the evidence on this topic (Scoping Search)?

The management of this condition requires a collaborative process between patients, family members, and healthcare providers. The successful management of this condition also requires evidence-based interventions that involve healthy lifestyles. Health education helps in the prevention and success of obesity conditions (Weihrauch-Blüher & Wiegand, 2018). Therefore healthcare providers play an important role in providing health education to parents and patients to ensure that children are from obese conditions.

· What is the outcome of interest?

The successful management process of obesity requires the adoption of a self-management obesity education program to help in the prevention and successful management process. Health education to parents helps ensure that there is the promotion of healthy behaviors and a reduction in the risk of comorbidities associated with obesity (Lanigan et al., 2019). The other outcome of interest is maintaining a healthy weight and reducing the reported incidences of childhood obesity in the United States.

· What are the gaps in our understanding or knowing related to this topic?

Despite obesity being a preventable and manageable condition, little effort is put in by the parents or children to promote self-care through adherence to a healthy lifestyle and medication. This indicates a gap in self-management from the patient's perspective (Weihrauch-Blüher & Wiegand, 2018). Effective healthcare education on obesity is required to ensure successful self-management of obesity condition .

References

Lanigan, J., Tee, L., & Brandreth, R. (2019). Childhood obesity.  Medicine,  47(3), 190-194.

Weihrauch-Blüher, S., & Wiegand, S. (2018). Risk factors and implications of childhood obesity.  Current obesity reports,  7(4), 254-259.

Week 3