Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (NPAO) health promotion program
Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (NPAO) health promotion program
Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (NPAO) health promotion program
The obesity epidemic does not have a single or simple solution and it is considered to be a complex issue that requires a multifaceted strategy. The policymakers; the state as well as the local organizations; the business, the school, and the community leaders; the childcare and healthcare professionals; and individuals are expected to work together to help in the creation of an environment that supports healthy lifestyles.
The NPAO program is focused on the provision of quality education and supporting the implementation of public health policies, systems, and environmental change (PSE) approaches. The focus is to promote healthy eating and active living for individuals of all ages (Pearce et al., 2019). Healthy eating and physical activeness have been confirmed to be important in the maintenance of healthy body weight and the prevention of the risk of developing chronic illnesses.
Changing eating habits is important for the loss and maintenance of weight. To ensure there is a loss of weight, individuals need to eat fewer calories and utilize more calories than what has been taken. Even though this can be a challenging procedure, sticking to the plan can be important in the reduction of the weight and maintenance of a healthy weight. Based on the NPAO health promotion program, following a healthy eating plan is influenced by various factors such as age, weight, metabolism, food preferences, access to food, culture, and traditions. Under this health promotion program, a healthy eating plan is encouraged and it includes a variety of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains like oats, brown rice, and whole-wheat bread (Pearce et al., 2019). There are also fat-free or low-fat dairy products like milk, yogurt, and cheese; consumption of various protein foods that include seafood, lean meats, and poultry, legumes, nuts, soy products, and seeds; oils like olive and canola oils.
The healthy eating plans under the NPAO health promotion also include the consumption of fewer foods and beverages that contain refined carbohydrates, sodium, and added sugars. The eating plan encouraged in the community also includes the control portion size and restricting foods that have saturated fats and trans fats. The required or defined physical exercise promoted in the community is a regular physical activity that takes at least 150 minutes every week and it’s characterized by moderate to intense aerobic activity like brisk walking. Moderate to the intensity aerobic physical activity is important in making the heart beat faster and making a person breathe harder (CDC, 2021). This type of exercise does not overwork or overheat a person, therefore, they are considered to be safe for most individuals. Individuals with physical disabilities can take part in physical activities such as wheelchair aerobics or basketball. Before the engagement of the individuals in the physical activities, a thorough assessment of health condition is done to find the presence of heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes. The assessment is important in determining the type or the amount of physical activity that suits the lifestyle, interest, and skills.
The successful attainment of the expected outcome from the implementation of the NPAO health promotion program involves various activities. The targeted individuals are expected to ensure that there is adherence to the proposed activities (CDC, 2021). Some of the activities that can be performed include keeping track of the body weight, sticking to a healthy eating plan, ensuring that there is an ongoing regular physical activity, and taking part in the weight loss maintenance program.
Intended Outcomes
The NPAO health promotion program is targeted at developing a comprehensive, integrated strategy for enhancement of the nutrition and physical activity to help in the reduction of obesity in the community. The implementation of the program is aimed at achieving specific outcomes (Pearce et al., 2019). In this case, the expected outcomes, in this case, include an increase in the physical activity, an increase in the consumption of the fruits and vegetables, a reduction in the consumption of the sugar-sweetened beverages, an increase in the initiation and duration of the breastfeeding, a reduction in the consumption of the high-energy dense foods, and the reduction in the rates of the television watching.
Detailed Plan for Evaluation for Each Outcome
The evaluation of the health promotion program helps in providing the information that allows states to help in the successful development and implementation of the plan effectively and efficiently (Connecticut State, Department of Public Health, 2022). The plan for the evaluation can involve the collection of the information from the baseline data and this means the data on the amount of physical activity, the amount of the fruits and vegetables consumed by the population, the amount of sugar-sweetened beverages consumed, the duration and how often breastfeeding is initiated, the amount of energy-dense foods consumed, and the number of hours spent while watching the television.
Following the successful implementation of the program, it is expected that there will be an improvement in the physical activities, an increase in the consumption of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, a reduction in the amount of the energy-dense foods, and a reduction in the number of hours spent on watching television. There will be an improvement in the level of satisfaction and the attitudes of the participants in the development process (Connecticut State, Department of Public Health, 2022). The information can be used to help in strengthening the activities such as the improvement of the shareholder’s engagement, stimulation of the partnership formation, and identification of the suitable content and objectives for the plan.
The Potential Barriers or Challenges Towards the Implementation of the Proposed Project
The implementation of the NPAO program helps in attaining the excellent results and activities that lead to the reduction of the individual risk of obesity disease. There are various interventions such as the NPAO intervention that have been proposed to help in addressing the issue of obesity within the community, nevertheless, there are various challenges and barriers that affect the attainment of the expected outcomes.
One of the barriers that affect the successful implementation of the NPAO health promotion program is the culture. One of the interventions under NPAO is the promotion of healthy eating and avoidance of unhealthy foods that expose individuals to the risk of obesity. However, this intervention might not come to reality as a result of the cultural and traditional practices. There are individuals in the community who believe in the traditional practices and often consume unhealthy traditional foods whose value and nutritional contents are not known (Connecticut State, Department of Public Health, 2022). Based on these traditional practices, it is becoming hard to convince these people to quit such practices thus affecting the efforts put in place to ensure that there is a reduction in the consumption of unhealthy foods.
The other challenge is the language barrier which affects the communication with the individuals in the community. The language barrier is also affecting the rates at which individuals seek healthcare services for example the early screening process for the obesity risks. The language barrier affects the realization of effective communication and education to the population about some of the healthy practices that need to be adopted to reduce the risk of obesity diagnosis (Albury et al., 2020). The language barrier makes it hard to reach a specific group of the population and inform them about the available resources on obesity diseases, the risk factors, and the healthy practices that can be adopted to ensure that there is a reduced rate of obesity diseases within the society.
The other barrier is linked to the lack of commitment from the healthcare providers, government, and the population in general. Even though health education can be provided about the role of nutrition and physical activity in the reduction of the risk and complications of obesity disease, not all patients or community individuals will adhere to the recommendations made under the NPAO health promotion program (Coupe et al., 2019). The adherence to the proposed recommendation requires the willingness and the readiness of the targeted population.
The adherence to the recommendations based on the proposed NPAO intervention is also affected by the busy working schedules in the places of work. Many adults find it hard to prepare food at home and carry it to their workplaces. This means that the only source of foods that can be easily accessed is fast foods whose contents are not well known. These behaviors increase the risk of the individual to obesity illness and make it hard to implement the NPAO interventions (Brown & Perrin, 2018). The type of work performed by some groups of people requires them to spend several hours in the office and find it hard to create time for physical exercise as a result of their work and family schedules.
Due to the rise in chronic illness, there is a growth in the number of patients seeking healthcare services. The ratio of nurses to patients is becoming a major concern since few nurses are available to handle the growing number of patients. Therefore, it is sometimes becoming impossible for the majority of the nurses to engage in other health promotion practices such as community health education that targets the promotion of healthy living (Bump, 2018). As a result, the lack of awareness about obesity disease, the prevention measures, and the poor knowledge of the risk associated with obesity has resulted in the rise of obesity incidences within the community. The rise in obesity incidences within these communities is linked to environmental, social, and genetic factors.
The fight against obesity in the community is also affected by the lack of commitment from governmental agencies. The lack of commitment from both the local, state, and federal governments affects the fights against obesity and this implies that the implementation of the NPAO health promotion program is affected hence making it hard to reduce this incidence within the society. The government is making little effort to ensure that the companies producing fast food products adhere to the rules. There is a growth in fast-food products and the targeted individuals are children and adults working in the busy schedules in the organizations (Bump, 2018). These adults lack time to cook their foods at home, therefore, choose to buy fast foods whose contents are not well described in the labeling of these products. Therefore, the problem of obesity begins at a younger age as a result of the poor control laws on the firms that produce these fast foods in the country.
Strategies to Addressing the Barriers or Challenges
The successful implementation of the NPAO health promotion program requires effective solutions to the barriers mentioned above. It is evident that culture affects the fight against obesity, therefore, as a healthcare provider, it is important to practice cultural competency to ensure that there is support and understanding of the traditional practices. When the community feels understood and appreciated based on their traditions and cultural values, they can listen to the new proposals made by the providers (Jongen et al., 2018). As a provider, it is important to appreciate such cultures while informing them about the negative side of such cultures and the potential replacement of the traditions. This helps in changing the perceptions of the individuals within the community. The cultural-competency also helps in ensuring that the interpreter is employed to help in the effective communication with the targeted individuals.
The other solution is focused on the role of the government and its commitment to fighting the obesity disease. The government must ensure that there is the existence of the strict rules that register the food processing firms so that their licenses can be revoked if they fail to adhere to the nutritional value guidelines on the foods produced (Mozaffarian et al., 2018). Government commitment is also required in ensuring that the number of healthcare providers is increased (Kamal et al., 2019). This is an important approach since it helps in making sure that while some providers offer services at the facility, some teams can be assigned to the local communities to help in promoting health education on healthy behaviors so that the population is secured from the risks associated with the unhealthy behaviors.
References
Albury, C., Strain, W. D., Le Brocq, S., Logue, J., Lloyd, C., Tahrani, A., & Language Matters working group. (2020). The importance of language in engagement between health-care professionals and people living with obesity: a joint consensus statement. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 8(5), 447-455. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(20)30102-9
Brown, C. L., & Perrin, E. M. (2018). Obesity prevention and treatment in primary care. Academic pediatrics, 18(7), 736-745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2018.05.004
Bump, J. B. (2018). Undernutrition, obesity, and governance: a unified framework for upholding the right to food. BMJ Global Health, 3(Suppl 4), e000886. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000886
CDC. (2021, June 7). Obesity is a common, serious, and costly disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Connecticut State, Department of Public Health. (2022, April 1). Nutrition, Physical Activity & Obesity Program. Retrieved from https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Health-Education-Management–Surveillance/Nutrition-Physical-Activity-and-Obesity-Prevention-Program/Nutrition-Physical-Activity–Obesity-Prevention-Program Coupe, N., Peters, S., Rhodes, S., & Cotterill, S. (2019). The effect of commitment-making on weight loss and behavior change in adults with obesity/overweight; a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7185-3 Jongen, C., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. (2018). Health workforce cultural competency interventions: a systematic scoping review. BMC health services research, 18(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3001-5
Kamal, A. H., Wolf, S. P., Troy, J., Leff, V., Dahlin, C., Rotella, J. D., … & Myers, E. R. (2019). Policy changes are key to promoting sustainability and growth of the specialty palliative care workforce. Health Affairs, 38(6), 910-918. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00018
Mozaffarian, D., Angell, S. Y., Lang, T., & Rivera, J. A. (2018). Role of government policy in nutrition—barriers to and opportunities for healthier eating. BMJ, 361. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2426.
Pearce, C., Rychetnik, L., Wutzke, S., & Wilson, A. (2019). Obesity prevention and the role of hospital and community-based health services: A scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4262-
