The findings of this actual study point to the need for parents and authority figures to be better connected to the body image ideals of their children so that they can best meet the needs of these young adults.
Moore, J.B., Pawloski, L.R., Goldberg, P., & Kyeung, M.O. (2009). Childhood obesity study: a pilot study of the effect of the nutrition education program color my pyramid. Journal of School Nursing, 25(3), 230-9.
In this study, researchers assess the effectiveness of a particular educational intervention referred to as "Color My Pyramid" which is a children's nutritional program that is designed to influence kids early on to becoming more nutritionally educated. The design of the research was quasi-experimental, using 126 elementary school aged children as a sample. The findings demonstrated that educational interventions at the elementary level were wise practices that could have a positive impact on young children's BMIs.
Color My Pyramid is not the only program of this nature which exists and it would be worth conducting more research to determine if comparable programs would be equally beneficial in reducing weight for children. Furthermore, Color My Pyramid orbits around the food pyramid drafted by the USDA; this pyramid has often come under seige by nutritionists as not being the healthiest for kids. Thus, it would be also interesting to see if other food pyramids -- such as ones which emphasized less grains and more protein -- proved more effective. However, the study demonstrates yet again, the effectiveness in engaging children in nutritional interventions at a young age in order to form good habits for adulthood.
Resnick, E.A., Bishop, M., O'Connell, a., & Hugo, B. (2009). The cheer study to reduce BMI in elementary school students: a school-based, parent-directed study in Framingham, Massachusetts. Journal of School Nursing, 25(5), 361-72.
Resnick and colleagues attempted to ascertain the overall effectiveness and long-standing impact of parent-centered interventions on childhood obesity by engaging 46 parents over overweight kids from two public schools in Massachusetts. The researchers attempted to test the best ways in which educational materials should be taught to parents: via self-instructed methods or through one on one teaching methods with community health workers. At the end of the study, parents completed surveys and all their kids had their BMIs measured once more. All the children experiences lower BMIs, generally moving from 94 to 90.1. This demonstrates that educating adults can have a profound and immediate impact on their children in a clearly positive way.
The overall message of importance regarding this study is that it doesn't really matter in what way parents are educated, just that they are. Giving parents the proper knowledge and tools to make their kids healthy is what is most important of all. This study showcases that parents can have a profound impact on the habits and behavior of their young, and that researchers should never discount that but capitalize on it as a means for reducing the obesity epidemic.
Stalter, a.M., Chaudry, R.V., & Polivka, B.J. (2011). Regional differences as barriers to body mass index screening described by Ohio school nurses. Journal of School Health, 81(8), 437 -- 448.
Stalter and colleagues attempted to determine what the barriers were in BMI screening in schools and if there were any facilitating factors. The study involved 25 school nurses in three areas of Ohio. The tools used were simple, a tweaked version of Healthy People 2010 as a model as a means for uncovering reasons and motivations for the choices made by these nurses in a group format. The tools were reasonably adequate, turning out results which showed things like the nurses' background, school policy, and access to quality healthcare as all factors in whether or not the nurses took BMI measurements. Different tools would probably have turned up the same results as this study was just an attempt to uncover such information and how it works as a motivating factor.
Stuart, W.P., Broome, M.E., & Smith, B.A. (2005). An integrative review of interventions for adolescent weight loss. Journal of School Nursing, 21(2), 77-85.
Researchers wanted to determine the effectiveness of a range of weight-loss interventions with overweight teenagers by comparing and contrasting 17 studies which addressed this issue. The results of the study found that there weren't enough representations of minority groups and that a more precise conceptual framework is needed to best guide the study. The tools used were efficient enough; similar results would have been gleaned even if the researchers used highly efficient tools.
Tsai, P.Y., Boonpleng, W., McElmurry,...
(2009). Lessons learned in using Take 10! with Hispanic children. The Journal of School Nursing, 25(2), 163-172.
Researchers were aware of how poor diet and a lack of physical activity could attribute to childhood obesity; TAKE 10! Was a program implemented in public schools to address this issue. Tsai and colleagues used questionnaires, observations, teacher surveys and one on one interviews to determine the effectiveness of the program and whether or not it needs to be tweaked. Tsai and associated made some discoveries which point to changes the TAKE 10! regime could implement. The tools used to reach these results were reasonably thorough, however, it's noticeable that the researchers at no point weighed the children or calculated their BMIs something which would have given them clear results as to the efficacy of the program.
Yost, J., Krainovich-Miller, B., Budin, W., & Norman, R. (2010). Assessing weight perception accuracy to promote weight loss among U.S. female adolescents: A secondary analysis. BMC Public Health, 10, 465.
Researchers acknowledge that obesity has become a global epidemic and that concerted immediate effort is necessary. Yost and colleagues engaged in a non-experimental, descriptive, comparative secondary analysis design using data from a National Longitudinal study of adolescent health. The tools used were statistical software which assessed the range of variables. These tools were highly effective and eventually led researchers to the conclusion that things like age, race, body-mass index and weight perception along with accuracy needs to be engaged into weight loss interventions for American teenage girls. The statistical data analysis tools used were so precise and successful, there's no doubt that another tool would only provide different results if it was inferior.
Sacks, F.M., Bray, G.A., Carey, V.J., & Smith, S.R. (2009). Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. New England Journal of Medicine, 30(6), 859 -- 873.
Sacks and colleagues wanted to determine if a particular diet was more effective at shedding pounds in overweight adults, such as diets higher in protein and fat vs. diets higher in carbohydrates and lower in fat. The tools used to measure the progress of the participants were two by two factorial comparisons of the various diets administrated. The results showed that the diets were more or less equally effective and the tools for coming to these results were so basic and straightforward (but still efficient) that no other tools would have reaped different results -- as a reduction in mass was the key factor being measured. For example, all of the participants lost an average of 6kg regardless of the diet they were on.
Jurkowski, J.M., Green Mills, L.L., Lawson, H.A., Bovenzi, M.C., & Davison, K.K. (2012). Engaging low-income parents in childhood obesity prevention from start to finish: A case study. Journal of Community Health, 150-163.
Researchers emphasize the necessity of preventing childhood obesity and focus upon ways to use the power of parents to prevent this phenomenon. This study included parents as they acted as assistant researchers in the creation, implementation and assessment of an intervention for families from lower-middle class incomes. Assessment in this study was different as the participants were some of the people who engaged in the evaluation, using simple tools such as observations and surveys. These tools merely reflect the success of the results gained which showed the power and significance that parents have, if properly educated in the prevention of childhood obesity.
Evidence Summary
Nearly all the articles hone in on a need to systematically address the issue of childhood obesity in a manner which is multi-faceted. Parents need to join forces with teachers who need to join forces with community leaders who all need to gather together to approach this problem in a multi-faceted way. Research has shown that parents have a profound impact on the actions of their kids, but so do teachers and community leaders in setting an example. Education is key in combating childhood obesity; but not just education in schools; this education needs to be reinforced in the homes of children. Schools also need to implement exercise programs in conjunction with their nutritional programs so that today's generation, which is heavily laden with technology, can be active on a daily basis.
The best nursing strategy for this particular issue would be one of the most timeless, and one can argue the most relevant. Florence Nightingale stressed the importance of environment for years; it was an integral part of theory on health and wellness.…
