Virtual Health Education (Essay Sample)

Virtual Health Education Program on Obesity
Name
Institution
Recognizing the Issue
In the contemporary world, there exist several emerging health issues that cut across persons of all walks of life. The common ones include obesity, heart disease, STDs, diabetes, hypertension, H1N1, and AIDS. Majority of these diseases are lifestyle related, as opoosed to those that develop by virtue of natural causes. As a result these diseases can only be curbed or minimized by adopting healthy lifestyle choices from early child development to adulthood and finally old age. Each disease is usually prevalent in certain age groups, for instance hypertension is rampant amongst adults as compared to children. Obesity cuts across all the age groups. Diabetis is usually found amongst adults, especially those past the age of fifty (Hills, King & Byrne, 2007). Among these diseases, the issue in this milieu will be obesity.
Obesity steps in when one has excessive fat in the body. This condition is capable of causing heart problems, diseases such as diabetis mellitus, and certain forms of cancer, all of which are life-threatening (Hills, King & Byrne, 2007). Obesity results due to the intake of lots of calories in form of fat by both adults and children in excess of what is required by the body. The body itself produces its own fat, and that which is consumed externally tends to be surplus to the bodily limit (Hills, King & Byrne, 2007). Hence if not burnt down in form of exercises or utilized in the event that there is a deficit of energy hence the stored fat is the other alternative source, it places one at the risk of being obese.
In this context, focus will be on children and how they are at risk of being obese, especially attributable to their lifestyle. A study previously conducted in Scotland indicated that chidren between the age of three years to five years spend very limited time on physical activity, the average being only three percent of a day (Kopelman & Stock, 2005). In consequence of this, they tend to accumulate high levels of fats due to the low level of physical activity that results to reduced energy expenditure. Despite lack of physical activity being the prime cause for obesity in children, other factors such as cognitive, physical and psychological development tend to be contributory factors (Kopelman & Stock, 2005).
For example, a child may lack the space required to play due to the environs in which they are housed hence limiting them to spending time indoors (Kopelman & Stock, 2005). The child is therefore denied the opportunity of interacting with the neigbourhood, hence fail to physically, socially and mentally test themselves in early life situations, an event that will impact them in later stages. Additionally, the child may live in a secluded environment, such as that in gatedcommunities as compared to estates (Kopelman & Stock, 2005). Such a child will be accustomed to solitude, and consequently lack the urge of spending time with other childen of the same age group. This places them at risk of being obese due to lack of physical activity, and the other factor in play will be the psyvhological torture of having to be condemened to isolation and seclusion from the external environment (Kopelman & Stock, 2005).
To curb this menace, children are required to be subjected to activities such as evening play, taking a walk or even cycling which not only reduces the risk of being obese but also gives them exposure to the external world. If this is implemented, their rate of phycal activity will drastically improve, and the risk of being obese will be largely reduced. Another way in which this issue can be curtailed is the introduction of Virtual Health Education Programs.
One of the most dramatic changes to health care and program delivery came with the advent of the internet. Individuals and community members now use the internet to seek health information, and ultimately make decisions about the type of care they want and receive. As a result, web resources have given Health Educators creative freedom to design and implement programs in ways never imaginable. Majority of community members rely on the internet to obtain information and education. This paper will hence entail the designing of a user friendly virtual resource that members can use to access health education service related to curbing obesity in children.
Gaining entry into the community
The overall community is the central unit that obesity impacts on. In designing of the Virtual Health Education Program for children to aid in the curbing of obesity, there has to be an effective entry strategy into the community of the program. Such a program is required to be accesible by a large number of persons, especially the parents who bear the responsibility of taking care of their children. The program should take the form of distance education, by employing several means of communication to access learners located in varied locations simultaneously. Communication can be enhanced by utilizing technologies such as television broadcasting, computers, telephones or video conferencing, just to highlight a few.
In this set up, the web based platform will be utilized for the Virtual Health Education Program, to facilitate easier access of the information relating to obesity and how it can be curbed amongst children (Herndon, 2014). This will take the form of a distance learning program, since the internet had proved to be a vital and more preferred information source compared to the other sources. Currently, over half of the world’s population has access to internet connectivity, and this is made possible majorly via computers and mobile phones (Herndon, 2014).
Children from ages five and above are capable of comfortably accessing internet since they are at this time exposed to gadgets such as mobile handsets (Herndon, 2014). Hence having a health education program that is web based will be the best entry mechanism in the community as majority of the population are proficient enough in accessing internet. The forum will entail having online facilitators who will be responsible for the planning, guidance and evaluation of the entire learning process. There will also be online advertisements and sensitization of the effects of obesity and the mechanisms in which persons can shun it away, particularly children. Such a platform will also be free for access, so that financial hitches will not bar the community from accessing the vital information that will be existant there.
Organizing the people
The Virtual Health Education Program designed will provide health benefits that will be beneficial to everyone across the divide since obesity is a grave issue. The prime concern will however, be the children. Children are considered as the people more at risk of being obese since they have very little influencing concerning their food choices (Herndon, 2014). As a result, the Virtual Health Education Program will be designed in a way that it will target both the children and adults alike. The people will be organized in such a way that children get more dedicated time and access to information, whereas the time allocated for the adults will be quite limited since to them the parameters that will be provided to them will only be the guidelines on how to nuture their kids.
Such an organization will be critical in enabling both adults and children benefit from the Virtual Health Education Program, since the adults are also victims of obesity. The children will, however, be the main beneficiaries as the program is specifically designed for them. The adults will be required to step in to offer guidelines on how to implement the suggested changes for instance in their lives and to also ellaborate some of the medical jargon that may be quite intricate to the children. Involvement of both adults and children will also result to a strong bond between them, as all of them will feel part and parcel of the activities and learning experiences of the program.
Assessing the community
Past research, particularly that carried out by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that nearly a third of the entire population is obese (Kopelman & Stock, 2005). This was an alarming statistic, since the number has almost trippled from what was there in the early 1960’s . The shocking part is that as the number of adults who are obese doubled, the number of children who were reported obese tripled (Kopelman & Stock, 2005). This is quite discouraging, and with this trend obesity is bound to hit levels where it may not only be a national epidemic, but may affect a hefty portion of the world’s population. Many countries, international communities and the United Nations have placed health as one of their key concerns. As a result, a lot of investment has been put towards health, and significant gains have been made as evidenced by enhanced health levels, reduced mortality rates and improved and easier access to health facilities. The danger that obesity poses, however, is that the gains will be insignificant since it has not been given prime priority (Kopelman & Stock, 2005).
As aforementioned, obesity greatly increases the risk of many other secondary related diseases developing. In assessing the community, research has it that close to seventy percent of heart related diseases are caused by body fat being in excessive amounts in the body, hence settling in the arteries and the muscles around the heart (Kopelman & Stock, 2005). Consequently, persons who are obese face a larger risk of contracting heart diseases such as hypertension. Obese people also face the risk of colorectral cancer, and women who are obese face the potential risk of developing breast cancer. Statistics also indicate that over 80 percent of persons who have diabetis meli...