ANNP8062 well child FNP

Need to respond to other student posts with

a thoughtful, literature supported answer. Please include references if indicated.

STUDENT POST that I need to respond to ( references must be in APA):

As a primary care provider, what is one prevention strategy that you can implement in your practice that will make an impact on obesity rates?

One prevention strategy that can be implemented in a primary care setting is the emphasis on interventions regarding environment, physical activity, and diet. The environment and physical activity play a significant role in leading a healthier lifestyle because it determines accessibility to grocery stores, walking pathways or trails, safe roads for bicycling, parks, and recreation centers (Dehghan et al., 2005). These environmental factors can determine the amount of physical activity children can get within their community that can contribute to obesity. Diet is an important factor that has been linked to obesity. Food prices can determine what consumers will buy and will directly impact their health. Foods that contain lower nutritional value are soft drinks, many snack packs, and confectionery goods; and unfortunately, these items are generally cheaper than organic fruits and vegetables (Dehghan et al., 2005). As a provider, it is important to determine the patient’s socioeconomic status and see if they have access to an environment where physical activity is feasible and nutritious food is available. If these things are not easily attainable, it is important for the provider to provide suggestions for families to achieve a healthier lifestyle and ultimately decrease the rate of obesity in the United States.

Choose ONE physical or psychological effect (ex. asthma, depression etc. ) of obesity in children and summarize (provide APA reference for this information).

Children who are obese may have cardiovascular problems later in adulthood. Cardiovascular disease is usually perceived as a problem that occurs in adulthood, but there have been studies suggesting that atherosclerosis begins in childhood (Ruiz et al., 2019). Obesity is the most predictive factor to yield an increase in cardiovascular disease in adulthood (Ruiz et al., 2019). Ruiz et al. (2019) reports that 70% of obese children and adolescents have a risk factor such as hypertension and dyslipidemia that is associated with atherosclerotic lesions. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, so it is important for early intervention to tackle childhood obesity in order to decrease cardiovascular-related problems in adulthood.

Discuss one community effort that you are aware of that is aimed to impact obesity.

One community effort that has aimed to impact obesity is to improve nutritional content of school lunches. Changes that school cafeterias made were to limit French fries, having more whole-grain options, fat content capped at 1% for milk, and encouraging students to take fruits and/or vegetables. At a junior and senior high school in New York, researchers attempted to influence choosing healthier choices of food like increasing convenience, attractiveness and having healthy foods appear in the lunchroom become a norm (Hanks et al., 2013). Specific changes that they made were having fresh fruit next to the cash register, lunch menu posted in color outlining fruits and vegetables, and having fresh fruit displayed in nice bowls or stands. Cafeteria staff would also suggest fruit or vegetables once students get to the cashier. These interventions increased consumption of fruit by 18% and vegetable consumptions by 25% (Hanks et al., 2013).

References

Dehghan, M., Akhtar-Danesh, N., & Merchant, A. T. (2005). Childhood obesity, prevalence and prevention. Nutrition Journal, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-4-24 (Links to an external site.)

Hanks, A. S., Just, D. R., & Wansink, B. (2013). Smarter lunchrooms can address new school lunchroom guidelines and childhood obesity. The Journal of Pediatrics, 162(4), 867–869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2012.12.031 (Links to an external site.)

Ruiz, L. D., Zuelch, M. L., Dimitratos, S. M., & Scherr, R. E. (2019). Adolescent obesity: Diet quality, psychosocial health, and cardiometabolic risk factors. Nutrients, 12(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010043 (Links to an external site.)