Response on a Post: Obesity in Children

Kindly reply to the below discussion post:
Reducing obesity in children ages 2-19 is an area of interest in which I would like to see a practice change occur for NPs and their patients. According to Healthy People 2030 Leading Health Indicator (n.d.), the goal to reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with obesity from 19.7% to 15.5% is paramount (https://health(dot)govLinks to an external site.). In my home state of Colorado, the Trust for America's Health reports that obesity rates are increasing to almost 20% in this aggregate population (www(dot)tfah(dot)orgLinks to an external site.). For Coloradoans, NPs must take the initiative toward practice change to promote health to reduce overweight and obesity and provide successful health outcome measurements.
The Trust for America's Health (n.d.) recommends reducing obesity by improving student's nutrition at school, decreasing food insecurity, and promoting physical activity (www(dot)tfah(dot)orgLinks to an external site.). Colorado passed legislation in 2022 for a Healthy School Meals for All Program for free nutritious lunches in the public 2023-24 school year. Colorado also promotes a Healthy Kids Club (n.d.), which promotes health and wellness among students K-5, but the events are only episodic and not all school year (www(dot)uchealth(dot)orgLinks to an external site.). This is an excellent start for this population. I believe that NPs can take these programs a step further by partnering with UC Health to transition the Healthy Kids Club to the full school year offered to all school-aged students 2-19 in a before-school program. Exercise promotes health, results in a lower BMI, and predicts higher future activity levels as kids age into adulthood. (Whooten et al., 2018). Whooten, Perkins, and Taveras (2018) also indicate that a 3-day/week before activity school program improves BMI and social-emotional well-being. Also, NPs need to be creative to reach their adolescent patients. It's easy to notice that adolescents are reliant on their smartphones with social media and academic-related apps. NPs could seek an IT partner to provide an app to track nutrition, exercise, and screen time since mobile phones offer a gateway to obesity prevention strategies (Partridge et al., 2019). This data could be transmitted to the adolescent patient portals to facilitate obesity prevention and education and promote wellness among this age group. Both programs could be measured at three-month intervals to monitor for reduced BMI and increased physical activity. Both interventions apply to NP practice change, are patient-focused, and can be measured for improved health outcomes.
References:
Colorado Department of Education. (n.d.) Healthy school meals for all program. Healthy School Meals for All Program | 
Partridge, S. et al., (2019). 'Not to be harsh but try less to relate to 'the teens' and you'll relate to them more': Co-designing obesity prevention text messages with adolescents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 16(24), 4887. 
Trust for America's Health. (n.d.) The state of obesity 2022: Better policies for a healthier America. 
Whooten, R. et al., (2018). Effects of before-school physical activity on obesity prevention and wellness. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 54(4), 510-518. 
University of Colorado Health. (n.d.) Healthy Kids Club. 
US Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.) Healthy People 2030. Overweight and Obesity - Healthy People 2030 |