Obesity -Benchmark  Policy Brief

The benchmark assesses the following competencies:

1.4 Participate in health care policy development to influence nursing practice and health care.

Research public health issues on the \”Climate Change\” or \”Topics and Issues\” pages of the American Public Health Association (APHA) website. Investigate a public health issue related to an environmental issue within the U.S. health care delivery system and examine its effect on a specific population.

Write a 750-1,000-word policy brief that summarizes the issue, explains the effect on the population, and proposes a solution to the issue.

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Follow this outline when writing the policy brief:

Describe the policy health issue. Include the following information: (a) what population is affected, (b) at what level does it occur (local, state, or national), and (c) evidence about the issues supported by resources.Obesity -Benchmark  Policy Brief

Create a problem statement.

Provide suggestions for addressing the health issue caused by the current policy. Describe what steps are required to initiate policy change. Include necessary stakeholders (government officials, administrator) and budget or funding considerations, if applicable.

Discuss the impact on the health care delivery system.

Include three peer-reviewed sources and two other sources to support the policy brief.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

The average life expectancy in America has noticeably increased to around 78 years in spite of the high rise in people living with lifestyle conditions like obesity. Obesity in the United States has become major concern since it predisposes people to getting more chronic conditions including diabetes and hypertension (Cochrane et al, 2017). The people in the US are faced with adverse healthcare challenges that requires proper policies that will help them in overcoming the health problems.

Obesity is one of the challenging diseases among Americans axing major health problems. Most Patients suffering from obesity further develop stroke, coronary heart disease, heart failure and sometimes stroke. Furthermore the government, insurances and individuals spend huge amount of money to lower the impacts and issues related to obesity in a given environment (Robinson, Blake & Sacks, 2020).  A recently conducted research by the government agencies indicate that in every three men in America two of them turn out to be suffering from obesity. Consequently, the rate of women suffering from obesity is increasing. Globally, has the highest number of obesity cases putting the country at an economic strain where more than 1500 dollars are used to cater for medical bills for one individual suffering from obesity. Cumulatively, families and medical insurances spend more than 150 billion dollars yearly on obesity related issues treatment.

Population Affected

The population affected by obesity is increasing affecting nearly 70 percent of the American population where more than 25 percent and over 72 percent adults are affected. The high rise of the cases of obesity in America poses the need for the government to formulate the appropriate policies that will help in the management and reduction of obesity cases. According to a research conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics more than 94 million people in America suffer from obesity (Cochrane et al, 2017).  Furthermore, most individuals suffering from obesity are consequently suffering from some types of cancers, heart diseases, type 2 diabetes among other lifestyle conditions. However, the Hispanics are the most affected in the US with around 47 percent of the total population suffering from obesity.Obesity -Benchmark  Policy Brief

Suggestions for Addressing Obesity through Current Policy

Appropriate policy for addressing the obesity issue need to be first formulated and also be provide with recommendations as well as steps required to be followed by individuals suffering from obesity. Patients suffering from obesity need to modify and control their daily diet pattern in a given environment (Giabbanelli & Crutzen, 2017). Stopping the consumption of sugary beverages, fast food items and junk foods as well as food with high cholesterol will help in reduction of obesity. Secondly, the patients suffering from obesity are recommended to change their sedentary lifestyle to physical exercises that will help them to shed excessive weight and fats.

The government has channeled all the efforts to control diabetes in a given environment through health eating policy, nutritional standards policy and physical activity policy (Robinson, Blake & Sacks, 2020).  The formulated policies are governed by the financing initiatives and supplemental nutrition assistant programs. The policies however require to be deployed by the government in the right direction to ensure that all the desired objectives are achieved in a given environment.

Policy Change and Implementation

Despite the government implementing influential policies on obesity management, the high cases of obesity have not shown any significant reduction among the targeted population. Therefore, there is a great need to launch campaigns as well as spread awareness amongst people suffering from obesity (Cochrane et al, 2017). Furthermore, parents and guardians are expected to provide healthy food to their children as well as monitoring their intake of junk foods. Also, schools have a responsibility of giving guidance to the students on the need to exercise as well as eating healthy foods. The health care practitioners especially the nutritionists, nurses and public health care officers are also expected to conduct massive campaigns on healthy living. The involvement of schools, institutions as well as healthcare facilities will be the only approach that will enhance successful implementation of the formulated policies to fight obesity.

Role of Stakeholders in Obesity Management

The key stakeholders in management of obesity include consumer groups, restaurant industries, food and beverage industries, healthcare practitioners as well as regulators and policy makers. Consumer groups in a given environment where obesity is major challenge are expected to take caution on the type of food they are eating and by all means should focus on eating healthy food and also adopting healthy lifestyles. In addition, the restaurants have a responsibility of cooking healthy foods as well as advising their clients about the levels of calories and cholesterol their foods contain (Robinson, Blake & Sacks, 2020).  Food and beverages on the other hand should adopt new ideas of shifting from making fatty foods with high levels of calories to adopting to making healthier and organic beverages and foods, the healthcare workers also have a responsibility of guiding their patients on nutrition as well as the need for doing exercises. Regulators and policy makers have a responsibility of ensuring all the formulated policies are implemented and followed faithfully by food and beverages companies, institutions, families as well as individuals.Obesity -Benchmark  Policy Brief

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 Impact of Bench marking Policies on Obesity in Healthcare System

            Bench marking of policies will be an important tool in ensuring all the stakeholders are accountable in the reduction of the rising cases of obesity. In addition, bench marking will promote the accountability of the stakeholders as well as provoking improvements in all the nutrition-related practices and policies in the country. Through bench marking policies, the government will ensure the foods consumed by the citizens are as healthy as possible (Robinson, Blake & Sacks, 2020).  In addition, food industries will ensure they produce healthy foods that will not cause any negative health impact to the consumers. Therefore, the health of the citizens will be enhanced, the environment of the population will be protected and also the inequalities amongst the people will reduced. The integration of stakeholders through bench marking will ensure that the healthcare system is sustainable and improved.

References

Robinson, E., Blake, M. R., & Sacks, G. (2020). Bench marking Food and Beverage Companies   on Obesity Prevention and Nutrition Policies: Evaluation of the BIA-Obesity Australia            Initiative, 2017-2019. International Journal of Health Policy and Management.

Giabbanelli, P. J., & Crutzen, R. (2017). Using agent-based models to develop public policy        about food behaviors: future directions and recommendations. Computational and     mathematical methods in medicine, 2017.

Cochrane, A. J., Dick, B., King, N. A., Hills, A. P., & Kavanagh, D. J. (2017). Developing           dimensions for a multi component multidisciplinary approach to obesity management: a           qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 17(1), 1-15. Obesity -Benchmark  Policy Brief