Health Promotion Intervention for Increased Cases of Obesity amongst London Metropolitan Students - Essay Example

Name Lecturer Task Date Research Proposal Title: Health Promotion Intervention for Increased cases of Obesity Amongst London Metropolitan Students Obesity has continued and still continues to pose a serious health challenge to most of the students in the United Kingdom. I have been motivated to seek for a reason that could perhaps lead to reduced cases of obesity by the fact that since I joined this college, cases of obesity have been increasing. Currently, it is quite evident that cases have increased from the fact that many obese students can be seen than before. Because colleges are perceived as crucial role players in the fight against obesity problem, it is important for all health stakeholders come up with a lasting solution focusing on educating them on the risks associated and intervention measures. With this research, I intend to explore reasons for increased obesity and this will help me in coming up with an intervention measure with the main target being London Metropolitan college students. Introduction This research proposal aims to establish the main causes of increased obesity amongst the college students. Findings of the causes of increased obesity will be used in the design of a necessary intervention measure. It will involve getting the actual facts from the participants through interviews and observation of their diet believed to be the main cause of obesity. The key areas to be addressed by this research proposal are the diet and necessary intervention measures that the campus management ought to address to curb this challenge. Obesity is a serious challenge that requires serious intervention from all sectors. This will be in line with the higher education's mission of developing a total person; well educated, healthy and ethical (Sparling, 2007, p. 3). Notably, many individuals perceive obesity as a serious personal failure hence affecting an individual psychologically, physically and economically (Jaffe, 2011, p. 58; Sparling, 2007, p. 3). Background and Rationale Currently, obesity falls in that group of leading cause of death in the global perspective. It is ranked number fifth mortality cause amongst both the children and adults (Al-Rethaiaa et al., 2010, p. 1). The current world comparison statistics indicated that United States leads in terms obesity prevalence rate with 30.6% of her individuals being obese (OECD, 2014). The United Kingdom is ranked at the third position with 23% of her individuals being obese (OECD, 2014). This calls for an immediate response from the relevant stakeholders. Obesity as a health condition is accompanied by some common problems categorized as psychological, economical and physical. Physical risks associated with obesity are cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart diseases (Al-Rethaiaa, 2010). Health experts have highlighted obesity as the main cause of current increase in cases of hypertension, diabetes type two and dyslipidemia amongst the teenagers (Sparling, 2007, p. 1). Realization of obesity as a health concern has prompted many scholars in the health field to conduct various research studies and implementation of intervention measures. Brown, Hole & Roberts, (2014) conducted a research study on the social aspect of obesity and from this study at the United Kingdom, it was quite evident that there is a significant relationship between spousal body mass index and obesity of children despite an initiative to control their health and other regional effects (Brown, Hole & Roberts, 2014). Some scholars have conducted studies on the best mitigation strategies for obesity. A study conducted by Rose et al., on the effect of primary care providers' advice of reduction of obesity indeed indicated that this strategy had a significant impact on behaviors of obese individuals (Rose et al., 2013). In another study conducted by Davison et al., the results of a pilot study indicated the effectiveness of community-based participatory research program in curbing the rising cases of obesity (Davison et al., 2013). The argument behind this proposition is that it empowers the parents to play a crucial role in eradicating obesity. Quite evident is the fact that several research studies have been conducted on causes of increased obesity, the effects and intervention measures. However, little has been done regarding a proposed intervention measure for implementation at the college level. As earlier mentioned, there is need for a fight against increased obesity incidences from all domains including educational domain. The need to curb obesity at the college level is further supported by the national survey's findings which indicated that three out of ten students in colleges were either obese or overweight (Sparling, 2007, p. 1). This research study will seek to promote awareness on the health risks of obesity and find a solution to this emerging problem in the U. K. colleges. Aim To promote awareness on health risks of obesity amongst the college students Objectives Participant will be able to list problems associated with obesity Participant will be able to list at least three ways of living healthy Methods and Justification Literature Search Strategy Being part of evidenced based practice, this research will require support from relevant literature. Various databases such Google database, Google scholar, Google books, online library databases such as EBSCO, Emerald and other publications containing relevant support literature will be used to provide evidence for this research. Getting relevant literature to support this research will involve typing key words such as Obesity, Obesity in colleges and Obesity statistics on the search databases. Search will be restricted to those studies that involve use of primary data. Methodology This study will make use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to obtain data regarding habits that are likely to result to obesity. Data will be collected by use of questionnaires and analyzed. Findings of this research will be supported by past scholarly works. Questionnaires will be administered to thirty students from London Metropolitan college. Twenty of the participants should be in the group of obese students while the remaining ten will act as a control group. Administration of questionnaires will be based on the willingness and will be selected randomly. Each of them will be required to provide personal responses to the questions presented in the questionnaire. On the hand, an intervention exercise will be included and it involves the use of posters. Participants will be subjected to this intervention measure on the basis of willingness. Ethical Aspects Ethical issues will be observed in this research. As earlier stated, participants will be allowed to participate on willingness. No participant will be coerced to provide personal details against his or her will. Any participant who needs to quit the exercise will be allowed to do so. Respect for autonomy through willingness to participate and quit will help in ensuring that true results are obtained at the end of research exercise. Additionally, principle of informed consent will apply in this research. This involves provision of information sheet to the participants before the research exercise. The participants will be required to fill consent forms after being given a chance to read and understand what is in the information sheet. This principle will help in ensuring that participants are not deluded into participation in the research and their interests are protected (Royal College of Nursing, 2011). As a way of protecting participants' information, codes will be used in the questionnaires provided. Participants will be made aware of presence of complain sheets to be filled in case of violation of their rights. Any criminal matter that might be raised against this research will be solved following the right legal procedure. Data Management and Protection Any information obtained from the participants will be kept confidential. Besides this, each participant will be given a unique code to protect his or her information from access. Notably, as no recording or video equipment will be used in this research, data management and protection will not be a major issue. Timeline This research study will undergo three steps including; preparation, implementation and evaluation. This health research is prospected to take six weeks. The first two weeks will involve getting information from the participants. This will be followed by implementation of research strategy. The last two weeks will be occupied by evaluation process. References James, W. P. T., Jackson-Leach, R., Mhurchu, C. N., Kalamara, E., Shayeghi, M., Rigby, N. J., Nishida, C., Rodgers, A. 2004. Overweight and obesity (high body mass index). In Comparative quantification of health risks: global and regional burden o f disease attributable to selected major risk factors. Edited by: Ezzati M, Lopez A. D., Rodgers, A., Murray, C. J. L. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2004:497-596. Sparling, P. B. 2007. Obesity on campus. Preventing chronic disease, Public Health Research, Practice and Policy, 4(3): 1-4. Jaffe, R. 2011. Confronting the Obesity Epidemic at Community Colleges. In transit, the La Guardia Journal on Teaching and Learning, 5: 57-72. Al-Rethaiaa, A., Fahmy, A. A. & Al-Shwaiyat, N. M. 2010. Obesity and Eating Habits among College Students in Saudi Arabia: A Cross Sectional Study, Nutritional Journal, 9(39):1- 10. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2014. All countries compared for Health: Obesity", OECD Health Data 2005. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster. Retrieved from http://www.nationmaster.com/country- info/stats/Health/Obesity. Brown, H., Hole, A. R. & Roberts, J. 2014. Going the same 'weigh': Spousal correlations in obesity in the United Kingdom. Journal of Applied Economics, 46(2): 153-166. Rose, S. A., Poynter, P. S., Anderson, J. W., Noar, S. M. & Conigliaro, J. 2013. Physician weight loss advice and patient weight loss behavior change: A literature review and meta- analysis of survey data, International Journal of Obesity, 37: 118-128. Davison, K. K., Jurkowski, J. M., Li, K., Kranz, S., & Lawson, H. A. 2013. A childhood obesity intervention developed by families for families: results from a pilot study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 10(3), 1-10. Royal College of Nursing. 2011. Informed Consent in Health and Social Care Research. London: Royal College of Nursing. Read More