6-1 Journal

Reflect on the work you have accomplished throughout the course on your final project. This would be a good time to review the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric PDF one more time, paying particularly close attention to the “Exemplary” column of the rubric. Answer the following questions in your journal reflection:

• Reconsider the audience you identified in Module Two. Remember that this audience should have the ability to help effect necessary change in regard to your topic. Do you believe that your identified audience needs to be adjusted? Explain the rationale for this audience.
• Review and discuss the feedback you have received throughout the course. Do you have questions regarding the feedback? Do you feel comfortable incorporating the feedback into your final paper?
• Discuss your research. Are there any gaps? Do you need to do additional research to round out and finalize your paper? If so, explain what you still need.
• Review the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric document. Have you addressed all critical elements of Sections I and II? Does your paper meet the details described in the rubric? Briefly explain your rationale.

A GLIMPSE BELOW OF ONE OF THE MILESTONES

Health Issue Analysis

Best Practices

The obesity prevention strategies are twofold: interdisciplinary and interprofessional approach and family-centered intervention. The interdisciplinary and interprofessional approach requires collaboration among the health care provider with the community on aspects related to nutrition and healthy lifestyle intervention. In this approach, care providers are also required to take a proactive role in the dissemination of nutritious knowledge within the community (Zhao et al., 2013). Meanwhile, the family-centered approach is based on its efficacy in reducing and preventing excess weight gain in adolescents and children (Smith et al., 2018). This intervention is also based on the premise that the family environment has significant effects on adolescent behaviors and thus can be leveraged to promote and reinforce healthy eating behaviors.

Prevention Option for Adolescents and Individuals like Michelle

The prevention options for adolescents and people like Michelle include physical exercise and access to a nutritious diet. In the adolescent population, physical activity has immense benefits that positively impact mental, physical, and social outcomes. Specifically, Scotto et al. (2023) opined that physical activity also influences other outcomes, such as life satisfaction and self-esteem. Thus, engaging in physical activities helps in increasing energy expenditure and thus helps in slowing the development of abdominal obesity. Even though Michele engages in some form of exercise at the school gym, that lack of structure and frequency contributes to the limited efficacy in preventing the development of obesity. The second option includes the intake of healthy diets. For instance, the Mediterranean diet has been shown to have a positive effect on weight loss when compared to low fat and low carbohydrate diet; the diet is equally varied, tasty, and with many flavors, which promote adherence (Dominguez et al., 2023). Thus, for individuals like Michele, an individualized Mediterranean diet and a physical activity program would help mitigate morbid obesity. Further, education programs focusing on the benefits of the Mediterranean would also increase Michelle’s awareness about the importance of a healthy diet rather than focusing on cereals and missing breakfast.

Influence of Age on Prevention Method

The age factor influenced the selection of the intervention. In part, for the physical activities, individuals within the age groups of 10-19 years are more likely to benefit from such intervention both physically and mentally. Besides, adolescent girls prefer to engage in low to moderate physical activities when compared to boys. Thus, Michelle’s age is at a phase where the impacts of physical activities are more likely to yield positive outcomes and mitigate the health risks associated with obesity in the long run. Meanwhile, the adolescent age group is often characterized by the daily intake of high-energy foods from sources that are sweet. Further, sweet foods have been cited as the main calorie contributor in the daytime (Bawajeeh et al., 2022). This food taste also affects the food choices and intake in later stages of life. Hence, Michele, as with all other adolescents, is more likely to be influenced in making a dietary choice that is not healthy. These risk factors can be mitigated through education and awareness of the role of the Mediterranean diet as a healthy alternative. Thus, the selection of the physical and the nutritional intervention were all influenced by the age factor and the possibility of influencing the development of positive behaviors and attitudes that will have long-term impacts.

References

Bawajeeh, A., Zulyniak, M. A., Evans, C. E. L., & Cade, J. E. (2022). Characterizing Adolescents’ Dietary Intake by Taste: Results From the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.893643

Dominguez, L. J., Veronese, N., Di Bella, G., Cusumano, C., Parisi, A., Tagliaferri, F., Ciriminna, S., & Barbagallo, M. (2023). Mediterranean diet in the management and prevention of obesity. Experimental Gerontology, 174, 112121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2023.112121

Scotto, S., Guillaume Martinent, Popa-Roch, M., Ballereau, M., Soufyane Chahdi, Escudero, L., & Guillet-Descas, E. (2023). Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence: The Role of Motivation for Physical Activity, Self-Esteem, Implicit and Explicit Attitudes toward Obesity and Physical Activity. Children (Basel), 10(7), 1177–1177. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10071177

Smith, J. D., Berkel, C., Jordan, N., Atkins, D. C., Narayanan, S. S., Gallo, C., Grimm, K. J., Dishion, T. J., Mauricio, A. M., Rudo-Stern, J., Meachum, M. K., Winslow, E., & Bruening, M. M. (2018). An individually tailored family-centered intervention for pediatric obesity in primary care: study protocol of a randomized type II hybrid effectiveness–implementation trial (Raising Healthy Children study). Implementation Science, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0697-2

Zhao, S. R., Cao, S., Lin, P. S., Yenor, J., Lam, R., Chang, E., Liu, R., & Liu, J. (2013). Interprofessional and Interdisciplinary Approach from Undergraduate Health and Pre-Medical Students in Children’s Health Educational Initiative. Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education, 4. https://doi.org/10.4172/2161-0711.1000266