Community Case: Health Promotion: Childhood Obesity

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Community Case: Health Promotion: Childhood Obesity

Case Part 1
As part of a district-wide initiative, school nurses and other Circle County School District
personnel have decided to target childhood nutrition and childhood obesity during the upcoming
academic year. The district recently conducted body mass index (BMI) screenings on students to
identify the numbers of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese children in the
district. The BMI scores for Circle County students are higher than the national averages:
Approximately 22% of these students have a BMI greater than or equal to 95%, according to the
BMI reference standards of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Community Case: Health Promotion: Childhood Obesity

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Questions for students:

1. Using the Public Health Interventions Wheel as your resource, identify two public health- related interventions that could be implemented in the BMI screening activity at Circle County Schools. Provide your rationale.
1) Screening these children was the first step in recognizing the trends and need for change. Collaboration and Health Teaching to the individual level, as well as community and system levels will benefit the children in this area. Recognizing the upward trend of a high BMI and addressing ways to make personal changes with diet and exercise are the first steps individually. Secondly, community booths can be set up to inform the public of little changes in our daily lives we can all make to improve quality of health. With information and health promotion, the system beyond the children and the families can be affected with policy changes throughout schools in this area.
2. Why is BMI screening in childhood important? What chronic illnesses later in life result from increased BMIs? Community Case: Health Promotion: Childhood Obesity
1) Screening for obesity utilizing BMI as a child is important to alert the child early on in life of modifiable factors. Unhealthy habits that start early in life are more  difficult to change down the road. Childhood full of fattening dietary choices and lack of exercise are difficult to correct, and lead to high obesity statistics. Obesity is a risk factor for Cardiovascular Diseases, especially Coronary Artery Disease.
3. How do these rates compare with national averages? How do they compare with Healthy
People 2020 goals?
1) According to the CDC, “Obesity among 2- to 19-year-olds is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile of children of the same age and sex in this 1963 to 1994 reference population. For example, a 10-year-old boy of average height (56 inches) who weighs 102 pounds would have a BMI of 22.9 kg/m2””. This indicates the boy is in 95th percentile for BMI, including him with 22% of others
in Circle County. This is an example of a BMI greater than 95% of similarly aged boys in this population. Therefore, if the national average of a male BMI is 28.6, a normal BMI is 18.5 -24.9 as “normal”, then 22% of this county classify as obese being 30 or higher. This county is high comparable to the national average which states that a third of the population is obese.
2) Healthy people 2020 state that HP2020 Baseline: In 2005–2008, the rate of obesity was 16.1% among children and adolescents aged 2–19 years, and we have a target of a 10% improvement over the baseline. Community Case: Health Promotion: Childhood Obesity