Abstract
Implementing Structured Physical Activity Program for Obese High School Students. Customer inserts His/Her name, 2009: Concept Paper, Customer inserts the name his/her university.
The concept paper was designed to provide details regarding the Implementing Structured Physical Activity Program for Obese High School Students. As the rate of the obese students increase, the implementation of a Structured Physical Activity Program becomes significant. The implementation of such a program costs much time and care.
The writer attempted to find out various activities involved in the implementation of this program and how they influence the student in his physical, educational and mental perspectives. The duty vested in parents, teachers and others to lessen the obesity,
The paper considers obesity as a serious problem. It brings into consideration the psychological changes occur in the obese students with the implementation of the Structured Physical Activity Program.
Introduction
‘Implementing a Structured Physical Activity Program for Obese High School Students’ deserve a serious discussion as it is has a devastating effect on most of the developed countries especially on U.S. and Britain. Obesity “refers to children and youth between the ages of 2 and 18 years who have body mass indexes (BMIs) equal to or greater than the 95th percentile of the age- and gender-specific BMI charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” (Childhood obesity in the United States: Defining childhood obesity, 2004, p.1). One can identify various reasons for obesity, like the discouraging mentality of the urban and suburban to walking and other physical activities, pressures on families to minimize food costs, reduced use of vegetables, decreased opportunities for physical exercises, spending much time watching television or playing computer of video games, etc. As children are the asset of a nation, it is mandatory to assure their health and physical fitness. In the process of building up a nation, it needs a greater effort with mental, physical and spiritual fitness and it can be achieved only through different procedure. The saying, ‘a sound mind exists only in a sound body’ points to the importance of keeping one’s body healthy and fit. But when regarding the modern world, it is understood that most of the people are careless of their physical health, either being fed up with their busy life or with their laziness. It is equally applicable to both adults and children who disregard their physical health; and remembers only when diseased or bed-ridden.
Statement of the Problem and Purpose
Most of the studies show that obesity rate is growing up and increasing rate of obesity points to the necessity of implementing a Structured Physical Activity Program to lessen obesity from school children, who are becoming fat and lazy fellows day by day. The given data shows the increasing rate of obesity and it reports: “Over the past three decades, the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years. At present, approximately nine million children over 6 years of age are considered obese.” (Childhood obesity in the United States: U.S Prevalence, 2004).
Background and Significance of the Problem
As the obesity rate among the school children is growing up, the Implementation of a Structured Physical Activity Program becomes important and thus the study assumes prominence. Most of the studies conducted in U.S. point that obesity is a serious problem and if it is not given much importance, it may be a real threat which distresses even the development of countries in the nearest future. The proposed study is conducted on the background of school drop out, caused with obesity and with the various diseases as an after effect of it. When a student is affected with obesity, he/she loses interest in studies and there is possibility for him to be lazy, by spending much time watching television or computer. The aim of the paper is to explore the various reasons of obesity and effective implementation of a Structured Physical Activity Program for building up a better generation and thus by assuring the bright future of the nation.
Initial Research Question(s)
- The proposed research is focused on the effect of implementing Structured Physical Activity among the obese school students and how will it benefit for them?
- Will the implementation create any kind of ethical or moral changes in a student as it is included with structured physical program?
- The proposed research is an analysis to find out whether the implementation of Structured Physical Training Program really benefit the obese school students in lessening their obesity, and provide them the capacity to concentrate on lessons.?
- What are the real problems that make a student obese and what impedes him/her from escaping the obesity?
- Is obesity a real problem affecting the physical, mental aspects of a student and also the social, environmental and policy contexts that influence eating and physical activity?
Literature Review
Physical Activity
Having compared and contrasted some of the literature in relation to the effective implementation of physical activities for removing child obesity, it is clear that a range of perspectives are examinable. Childhood obesity acquires an alarming growth among the school children. In the light of increasing obesity and lack of evidence for the effectiveness of preventive methods, the study will get much importance. In their collaborative work, Paul J. Veugelers and Angela L. Fitzgerald, remark that “Excess body weight has negative impact on self-esteem and contributes to a spectrum of co morbidities, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and multiple cancers, that resulting diminished quality of life and life expectancy and account for billions of dollars in health care spending.” (Vuegelers & Fitzgerald 2005, p.432-435) Their words rightly comment of the seriousness of child obesity and the subsidiary problems of child obesity. Adolescent period is considered as the most crucial period that marks physical and mental growth of a person. The above mentioned school programs will help a child to establish a healthy lifelong healthcare habits. The journal article named “Effectiveness of School Programs in Preventing Childhood Obesity: A Multilevel Comparison”, prepared by Paul J. Veugelers, and Angela L. Fitzgerald say: “School-based healthy eating and physical activity programs provide a great opportunity to enhance the future health and well-being of children because they can reach almost all children and may (1) enhance learning and provide social benefits, (2) enhance health during critical periods of growth and maturation, (3) lower the risk for chronic diseases in adulthood, and (4) help to establish healthy behaviors at an early age that will lead to lifelong healthy habits.” (Vuegelers & Fitzgerald 2005, p.432-435) Eating a healthy diet and physical activities, keep the keys to acquiring a healthy weight. The following statement discusses the importance of structured physical activities in daily life. It says: “It is important to begin healthy habits at early age, since dietary and exercise habits are often established during childhood.” (Preventing childhood obesity: Prevention, n.d p.1)
A report prepared by U.S. National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, says various strategies for secondary students. It introduces various strategies. One of the important strategy mentioned the report is Educational strategy. The report says: “the strategy is to implement health promotion actions aiming at developing personal skills to adopt healthy behaviors in the field of nutrition and physical activity in conformity with up-to-date recommendations and references. Each adolescent will be provided with about 50 education hours distributed in individual and collective activities in school (15 hours), interventions during courses (20 hours), and outdoors activities (15 hours).” (Effectiveness evaluation of three strategies of promotion of healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors to prevent weight excess among teenagers, 2009) Various preventive methods can be use to avoid child obesity in high school level. To conduct awareness programs, study classes, classroom exercises, healthcare programs etc are helpful for maintaining a sound body. “Two large survey of physical activity among U.S youth, the National Children and Youth Fitness Study (NCYFS I) and the YRBS, profiled physical activity. NCYFS I reported that youth will participate in about 1 to 2 hours of moderate tom vigorous physical activity per day as an average over a year.” (Henderson, Champlin & Evashwick, 1998, p35)
In the online article titled The Truth about Childhood Obesity Adult Fitness, Dr. Youngsoo Kim and Christina Sestan point out: “According to the Center for Disease Control, 9 million children are substantially overweight. And based on current trends this number is estimated to increase by 20% in the next 5 years.” (The Truth about Childhood Obesity & Adult Fitness(n.d))The statement throws light on the seriousness of the problem obesity and the current status of the problem. Lack of exact information, is a major reason for child obesity and overweight problem.
The journal article titled Preventing childhood obesity – examining what initiatives work comments the popular concept of physical activities and how the people will accept it. The article says: “The demands of modern school curricula make it difficult to include any additional physical activity as there are fears this may have a negative impact on academic performance.” (Preventing childhood obesity examining what initiatives work, 2006).
Some of the studies points to the carelessness of the schools in giving importance to the physical health of the students and thus by lessening obesity among children. They are not ready to arrange gym or other facilities for them. Gurion Blattman makes it clear when he says, “Schools are contributing to childhood obesity by failing to make physical education an important part of the curriculum.. Most of the schools failed to provide sufficient physical exercises to the children. Inadequacy and insufficiency are the major problems in schools by providing time for gym and other physical activities. Teachers can try to compensate by providing their classes with additional outside play time.” (Blattman, (n.d)). Regular physical activity is equally essential to both adult and children. However they are physically less active than recommended. As a social institution schools and other programs, arranged by social organizations have an important role to modify student’s health and they can assist the children to establish effective physical exercise patterns.
This article says: “Specific forms of physical activity and exercise in which young people might participate include walking, bicycling, playing actively (i.e., unstructured physical activity), participating in organized sports, dancing, doing active household chores, and working at a job that has physical demands. The places or settings in which young people can engage in physical activity and exercise include the home, school, playgrounds, public parks and recreation centers, private clubs and sports facilities, bicycling and jogging trails, summer camps, dance centers, and religious facilities.” (Physical activity exercise and physical fitness1997, p.2) As the teachers are one of the most influential factors of students they can perform a lot of things to decrease obesity from his/her students. They can make his/her students aware by reminding them of the problem respecting obesity and skilled teachers should be appointed for giving physical training to school students. The words of Tonia Van Staveren are remarkable when he says that, “there are several important action steps teachers can take to increase physical activity opportunities for school students. First, teachers must advocate for a physical education curriculum that covers all grades, K-12. This would not only enhance physical activity levels, but would also help achieve goals put forward by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE); the physically-educated person has learned the skills necessary to perform a variety of physical activities, is physically fit, physically active, and understands the benefits from involvement in physical activities (NASPE, 1995). (Staveren & Dale, (n.d)).
Table 1. Timeline
Description of Methodology and Research Design
The dissertation based on a secondary type of research to complete to the study. The research will be qualitative in type as the subject enquiry is extremely debatable. The research also makes use of qualitative data that include the effective implementation of structured activity program for obese high school students. The research methodology consists of literature review and the research draws conclusions from the vast number of literature that is reviewed this dissertation. For this literature review includes books, magazine articles, and online resources. The research also makes use of quantitative data that include the effectiveness of physical activities for the high school students, with the help of tables, diagrams, and so on the quantitative approach for the purpose for the study as it best suits for the aims and objectives of the study. The data is employed in the dissertation to see whether they supplement the findings of the literature reviewed. The research has attempted as focusing on the main topic that is, implementing a structured physical activity program for obese high school students. The proposed dissertation ha mainly three parts 1) statement of the problem, research questions, and identifying the topical areas of literature. 2) Review of the literature in detail includes the second part.3) Analysis and discussion of the literature and answering of research questions are included the third part. To reach into the desired effect of the research, the first part of the dissertation begins with some questions that are capable of giving an outlook of the real problem-underlying the effectiveness of physical activities for obese high school students. The research is focused around the various answers to the topics that are discussed above. The research methodology adopted for the given paper includes methods of measurement and analysis that makes the study reasonable.
Anticipated Outcomes
When implementing the Structured Physical Training Program for obese school students, it may cause for many changes in the students, especially in their method of living, behavior, studies, etc. In reducing the weight of the obese patients, the health care workers can promote various methods such as the regular physical activity, counseling etc. The proposed discussion and analysis is attempted here is based on the above literature review. It is focused on the studies that whether the implementations of physical activities have a significant role in eliminating obesity among school students? The discussion mainly based on the questions will the implementation create any kind of ethical or moral changes in a student as it is included with structured physical program? The analysis has been done with the help of diagrams and data collected from other sources. Excess body weight causes for various health problems like hypertensions, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and multiple cancers. The problem of child obesity badly affects student’s effective learning and he/she buried with weight problems. Various studies provide number of preventive methods including physical activities for avoiding the child obesity. Number of schools reports that school-based healthy eating and a physical activity program provides enough opportunities to enrich the future health. It is better to establish a preplanned physical activity package for the students and fix a specific time for each group, of students. Awareness programs and study classes for informing and encouraging pupils as well as the students. Studies reveal that the implementation of school programs and activities are often influenced by the school environment and the interaction with the local school organization.
In most of the schools obesity problem rate are increasing and the students those who are suffered with overweight caused by lack of physical exercises and other activities. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of overweight children and adolescents has nearly tripled in the past 30 years (see the appendix-1).
Appendix 1
The diagram shows that during the years1963-1970 the percentage of overweight among adolescents is only 5% and in the following years one can see the gradual increasing of the problem of overweight among children. In 1971-74 one can noticed the rate of obesity problem had reached 6%. Next year the rate of over weight problem and obesity are decreasing.In 1976-80 it had reached on 5% but the last few years it had reached very high. In 1988-94 the rate of obesity among students is 11%and the duration of 1994-1999 the growth had reached the highest stage. Here 14% adolescents have the problem of overweight and obesity. The report reveals that one of the major reasons of the tremendous growth is the reduction of physical activity and increase in calorie consumption among this group. The excessive use of fast food and snacks lead the students in to the world of obesity and overweight. Studies prove that more than 9 million children are substantially overweight.
As a social institution schools can help the students promote and maintain healthy eating and physical activity behaviors. The following sentence rightly comments about the role of schools and the programs for maintaining good health among the students. It says: “A school health coordinator is responsible for managing and coordinating all school health policies, programs, activities, and resources.” (Designate a school health coordinator and maintain an active school health council, 2004).
The formation School Health Council (SHC) is an important one in preventing child obesity. It includes parents, teachers, students, school administrators, healthcare providers, social service professionals and religious leaders. Physical activities and other exercises help students to control weight, reducing blood pressure, improving psychological well being and gaining self esteem
References
Childhood obesity in the United States: Defining childhood obesity. (2004). Institute of Medicine.
Childhood obesity in the United States: U.S prevalence. (2004). Institute of Medicine.
Blattman, Gurion. Childhood obesity: Physical effects. (n.d.).
Designate a school health coordinator and maintain an active school health council. (2004). National Association of State Boards of Education. 7.
Effectiveness evaluation of three strategies of promotion of healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors to prevent weight excess among teenagers. (2009). Clinical Trials.gov. Web.
Henderson, Alan. C., Champlin, Sally., Evashwick, William. (1998). Promoting teen health: Linking schools, health organizations, and community. 35.
Physical activity exercise and physical fitness. (1997). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2.
Preventing childhood obesity: Prevention. (n.d.). 1.
Preventing childhood obesity examining what initiatives work. (2006). EUFIC.
Prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents: United States. (2006). CDC.
Staveren, Tonia Van., & Dale, Darren. (n.d.). Childhood obesity: Are schools partly to blame. Department of Health and Physical education.
The truth about childhood obesity & adult fitness. (n.d.). Medi Report Group. Web.
Vuegelers, Paul..J., & Fitzgerald, Angela. S. (2005). Effectiveness of school programs in preventing childhood obesity: A multilevel comparison. American Journal of Public Health, 95 (3), 432-435. Web.