Navin Sanichar

Behavioral Risks
Risk Prevention Program Analysis Paper

Throughout the years, obesity has become one of the most alarming health issues in

America as its prevalence has continued to rise. It is estimated that during 2011-2014, about 1 in

3 adults were obese while about 17 percent of children at this time were also obese. The high

prevalence of obesity is also accompanied by a higher risk of hypertension, diabetes,

cardiovascular disease, arthritis, mental illness, and cancers such as breast, prostate, endometrial

and colon cancer for these individuals. These risks do not just affect individuals, however, but

communities as a whole. In many communities located within a food dessert area or a poor socio

economical status area, a lack of access to healthier food options for individuals plays a vital role

in propagating the obesity rates within these communities. The burden of obesity on

communities is even higher when considering the high medical costs associated with obesity. In

2008, the medical cost related to obesity was $147 billion. Furthermore, there are nearly 300,000

deaths each year directly caused by obesity. Currently, all states in the United States of America

have a higher obesity rate than the national goal of 15%.

The Community Guide’s Obesity Prevention and Control fact sheet addresses these

issues of obesity and lists intervention strategies that could be implemented within communities

to efficiently decrease the risk of obesity and obesity rates within the population. Much of these

interventions are evidence-based solutions from the Community Preventive Services Task Force

(CPSTF), a panel of independent and nonfederal public health and prevention experts. The

Community Preventive Services Task Force works in conjunction with the Center for Disease

Control. Some of the intervention strategies suggested by the guide for a community includes

instituting worksite programs for weight loss, initiating support coaching or counseling for
weight loss through electronics, and increasing the accessibility of healthier foods/beverages in

schools. Along with this, the guide also recommends strategies to decrease the amount of time

individuals within communities spend in front of the television or the computer. All of these

intervention methods are consistent with other public health approaches to this risk. For example,

according to a population-based retrospective cohort study conducted on California, it was

suggested that the large discrepancy found for higher rates of obesity within Black and Hispanic

communities compared to White and Asian communities was a result of lacking access to safe

physical activity and to healthier food options as well as an ethnicity-specific cultural diet.

Prevention plans for this scenario would be focused around the creation of safe physical activity

areas for the community and implementing safer food options within the public schools. Most of

the public health interventions surrounding obesity are based upon community-focused

approaches and social marketing campaigns, which includes obesity awareness ads of social

networks such as Instagram and Facebook.

The CPSTF recommendations to increase the accessibility of healthier foods and

beverages in schools include limiting the access to less healthy food options for students while

promoting healthier foods that would appeal to students. Some methods to accomplish this

encompass lowering the prices of healthier foods than its unhealthier counterparts, and

strategically placing healthier food options and beverages in areas they can easily be chosen by

the students. Along with this, school meal policies would also be required to provide breakfasts

or lunches to student that meet the nutrition requirements. Furthermore, programs to provide

students with fruits and vegetables should be initiated. Although, ideally, these recommendations

should assist in decreasing obesity rates within a given community by providing the means to a

healthier diet, it does not address the food culture at homes. Many students will pack lunches at
home that hold almost no nutritional value. Additionally, some students may not even be

knowledgeable of the difference between healthy and non-healthy foods to discern the types of

food they should be eating. In order to strengthen this intervention program, there should be a

school-wide healthy diet presentation given at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year

by a trained dietitian to inform students of the importance of a well balance meal for their health

and weight.

Another component of the intervention program calls for a reduction of computer or

television screen time. This notion may be accomplished by the creation of behavioral

intervention classes that teach students how to set goals, reinforce techniques, build skills, and

the importance of family support. These classes would effectively reduce an individual’s time

behind a screen while allowing for modest weight loss according to the CPSTF guide. Although

this seems like an effective method to get students away from screens to essentially motivate

more physical activity, I do not believe it will be as effective as thought. Even though while in

class, the student would be forced to reduce their screen time, this does not mean that it will

translate directly to when the student is out of the class. In order to more effectively motivate

reducing screen time the student should be given an incentive. This incentive may be to

participate in a list of physical activities such as running 1 mile every day for every week of

school in order to be entered into a school raffle for various prizes ranging from pens to books to

card games. This may help students allocate their time from being in front of a screen to actively

moving.

One more intervention program noted by the guide is the use of technology for coaching

or counseling interventions. The guide maintains that coaching or counseling through a

technological means would give people support to eat less and sustain their weight loss for 12 to
18 months. Although this program may work in helping some continue to lose weight or

maintain the weight they have by having 24/7 access to a coach whenever needed, it does have

its drawbacks. This includes the notion that there will be a higher reliance on the counselor and

coach than on oneself. This could easily result in the individual receding back to old habits once

the coaching is no longer available. Technology is also prone to malfunctions, so this

intervention plan would not be ideal for health coaching. The intervention of coaching and

counseling should take place weekly in person, instead, with a set of goals given weekly by the

coach for the individual to complete. Communication through technology would be important

and available in the program as well to give the person comfort that they may still contact their

health counselor whenever they want. This method may serve to be more effective than purely a

technology-based program.

The last intervention program recommended by the CPSTF circumvents interventions in

explicit settings such as work or school. This type of intervention would include physical activity

programs for employees to participate in as well as offering educational courses with a trained

professional about diet related choices and refining access to nutritious foods. This intervention,

although general, has a great chance of reducing obesity in a community. The best way to

improve on this intervention is to include weekly meetings for all employees or students to speak

on their opinions of the intervention and their use of the various intervention programs instituted

to best see what exactly is working and what is not.

While developing an intervention program to prevent the risk and rise of obesity, it is

important to note the social stigma that can arise from being obese and the effects it may have on

a community as a whole. The best intervention program design would include elements from all

four of the recommended actions by the CPSTF along with my suggestions for each
recommendation. With the right amount of education, counseling, physical activity, and healthy

food access, any community would be able to reduce greatly their obesity burden once all of the

aforementioned methods are followed correctly.

Program Fact Sheet Used:

https://www.thecommunityguide.org/sites/default/files/assets/What-Works-Factsheet-

Obesity.pdf