The most important health interventions in East London are physical activities and dietary interventions to tackle obesity and overweight health issues.
In this essay, I will write about health interventions in Tower Hamlet focusing on obesity as a health issue.
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In the first paragraph of the essay, I will write about the disease called obesity and how it has affected the lives of many in East London and the United Kingdom; I will also write about different health issues affecting the populations of the borough of Tower hamlet as one of the boroughs in East London, and I will later write about different interventions in place to tackle those health problems focusing on children living in Tower Hamlet.
I will back up my argument with different interventions to tackle childhood obesity in the latter part of this essay, I will conclude my essay in summary of the argument on the interventions.
Obesity is one of the prevalent health issues in the borough of Tower Hamlet in East London and the United Kingdom. According to the World Health Organization, it has recently shown that the increase in childhood obesity has increased from 32 million to 41 million globally (WHO,2012).
A report has shown that 61 percent of adults and 30 percent of children between the ages of 2 years 15 15years suffer from obesity in England
Childhood obesity is reported to be high in Tower Hamlet with 27.1 percent of children, ages (10- 11 years) are revealed to be obese, which is one of the highest in the capital (NHS,2018).
There is a link between obesity and overweight and the rate of deprivation that is prevalent in the borough. The place is rated to be the most deprived boroughs that suffer from health inequalities due to the high rate of poverty, it is known as a place that has one of the highest rates of health issues in East London, like obesity and other obesity-related health issues like cancer. (pubmed.gov/ncbi).
The number of less privileged children is high and obese.
Tower Hamlet has about 300,000 in population with an ethnically diverse population and one of the most densely populated boroughs in East London. It is considered one of the world’s most racially zones with a diverse place of worship for different religions.
The populations of people in Tower Hamlet are more Muslim than Christian living in the community in which religion and cultural differences also contribute to the level of obesity (Tower Hamlet Council,2018).
Other factors affecting the health and well-being of people living in Tower Hamlet vary from psychosocial factors to economic factors and behavioral factors like poor
diet and lack of physical activities. There is an increase in the number of time children spend watching TV and playing computer games which leads to a lack of body exercise, which is the cause of obesity in the UK (Care, UK 2019).`
Obesity is the accumulation of fatty tissues in the body, which leads to chronic and long-term health issues. The increase in body mass index (BMI) as a child increases the likelihood of being obese as an adult. Obesity is one of the greatest threats to health in the developed world
According to the World Health Organization, which states “Obesity has reached an epidemic level globally with at least 2.8 million people dying each year as a result of overweight and obesity” (WHO, 2012).
Childhood obesity starts from the early years (0-4 years) through to their school years in ages (10-11 years) and to adolescence which leads to health complications in adulthood.
According to Care UK 2019, reports have shown that childhood obesity is on the increase in Tower Hamlet. The reports show the strong connections between obesity, Type2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease, mental health problems, and child dental problems.
Research has also shown that being obese can increase the risk of heart disease, and Obesity has a strong connection to, many chronic health issues like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
The borough profile 2014-2016, report shows that Tower Hamlet has the highest rate of preventable death compared to London and England; the infant mortality rate is the highest compared to other boroughs in London; 43 percent of children in year 6 were obese in comparison to 39 percent in London.
The level of physical activity of the children in Tower Hamlet has been reported by several metrics to be low and this has resulted in childhood obesity in the borough (JSNA,2010-2011).
It is discovered that people living in the borough start to develop poorer health status ten years earlier compared to the rest of the country; and this is due to the socioeconomic factors, the level of poverty and deprivations in the community, poor housing, air pollution, lack of access to healthy food and lack of green spaces for physical activities.
About 1 in 4 children are obese in Tower Hamlet; with a report of childhood obesity levels of children between the ages of 4 years to 5 years of age and 10 years to 11 years are high in obesity compared to the national level. Tower Hamlet is reported to have a lot of fast food businesses, which encourages poor diet. (Tower Hamlet, 2018).
Therefore, preventing the rise of obesity through an increase in physical activities, a change of diet, and eating healthy will create a positive impact on the community. Factors affecting the increase in Obesity are mostly deprivation, socioeconomic factors, psychological factors environmental factors, and behavioral lifestyle.
Intervention is strategies or approaches to tackle health problems in individual lives and the environment to improve the health and wellbeing of the individual lives.
Interventions can be either preventive measures or therapeutic measures to create a healthier and safer environment, life longevity, and positive behavior and promote the health and well-being of individual lives and the community.
different approaches to interventions could be a behavioral approach, educational approach, medical approach, empowerment approach, social approach, and or combinations of some or all the approaches to solve the health issues that have proven to be effective in health promotions in Tower hamlet.
According to public health, “physical activities refer to any activity that requires force exerted by the skeletal muscle which results in the use of energy beyond resting level”. (PHE, 2017)).
Physical activity has proven to increase the level of confidence and self-esteem of children.
Tower Hamlet's joint Health and wellbeing strategy was a collaborative effort, by the borough's health professionals, and health organizations of the governmental bodies to tackle health issues in the community.
Physical activities and dietary intervention prevent the development of disease and promote the health and well-being of families and the community in Tower Hamlet.
Physical activities and dietary intervention improve mental health state and prevent obesity and overweight, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and type2diabetes which are common health issues in Tower Hamlet.
Working together governmental bodies like Public Health England, NHS England, the Department of Health, and NICE, tackle the problems of obesity and overweight and any other health-related problems.
Some of the health promotion frameworks are “All Our Health”, ”Start for Life”, “Change4Life”, Sugar Smart, “Healthy Weight, Healthier You”.
According to Sir Mamort's health review in a post in 2010 on health inequality (fair society, healthy lives)reported that “ high-quality support for mothers, good parenting, quality early education, receiving income that is enough for healthy living, living in a good environment, access to quality health and social care services and access to evidence-based programmed that address behavioral risk factors to health are the main factors that support healthy lives”.
The behavioral approach is one of the approaches to intervention to prevent negative behavior, bad habits, and physical inactivity that leads to ill health and obesity. It promotes a physically active lifestyle like cycling, swimming, and a healthy eating habit.
Early intervention is a life course approach that gives a child a good start in life by promoting a healthy lifestyle of a child from infancy to toddler through to adulthood, targeted at children and families that have a high risk of obesity due to generic status or behavioral lifestyle by educating the parent, health promoters and carers which empowers the family and the community to be in control of their health status in later in life.
Breastfeeding mums are being supported in the borough by providing venues and access for them to be able to comfortably breastfeed their baby for a healthy start in life.
The children of school age (10-11years) are prevented from buying unhealthy fatty food by locating the shops 400meteres away from school. Children were encouraged to cycle or walk to school to increase their level of daily active exercise and to reduce air pollution caused by car exhaust emissions.
“Change4life” Is an intervention program launched in January 2019 to tackle obesity. In Tower Hamlet, working together by health professionals, improve the health and well-being of the people and address the level of childhood obesity. It encourages families to make a change through the eat well, Move Well, live well campaign encouraging children to stay active for life.
“Change4Life” A healthy borough program is a partnership program with the collaboration of the NHS and public health to encourage healthy eating in schools by providing fruits and vegetables for example Christ church schools in Tower Hamlet were consistently provided with healthy lunch boxes, fruits, and vegetables at meal times. A Healthy Weight, Healthy Life is a multi-agency initiative to tackle the high level of obesity in Tower Hamlet.
Businesses were also encouraged to sell more fruits and vegetables, to reduce their salt and sugar levels in takeaway foods. Schools were located away from fast food shops of about 400 meters (10 min walk) to discourage the year pupil from purchasing junk foods. Incentives and awards were given to businesses that sell more healthy food. Grants of £500 were given to people to use to set set up an initiate they believe their community needs. Adequate training and posters were given to shops to educate people on healthy eating.
A healthy diet is an important part of health and well-being, it prevents diseases and promotes health.
Change4Life Active play creates an indoor game whereby children can still do indoor exercise, to increase their physical activities and get involved with outdoor activities like sports and exercise to promote their health.
Child and family weight management programed, children between the ages of 5 and 19 are actively supported in Tower Hamlet to ensure healthy lives and have access to health care services and they are also encouraged to actively cycle in school and to adopt a cycling culture to their lifestyle.
“Get Your Skate On” A free program that took place on the 20th of February 2019 featuring Ice skating, sports taster, rides and climbing, basketball, skateboarding, tennis, athletics, arts and crafts at Bethany Green Gardens to encourage people to stay active during the holiday
The Medical approach to intervention is one of the health promotion interventions to tackle obesity and overweight in the community for example, pharmaceutical need assessment (PNA) strategy to increase pharmaceutical shops in the borough of Tower Hamlet.
Although “Research Changes Live” (2014-2019), is a medical approach to intervention, used by the health professional to tackle health problems like Obesity and related diseases.
It uses both scientific areas and experimental approaches to tackle health problems by producing an understanding of the mechanism of obesity and its strong link to diseases to develop an intervention that improves health and wellbeing. It is therefore not the most effective due to cost which results in a lack of funds to sustain it.
Physical active and healthy eating will be more effective in the borough if there are more green spaces and more parks for children to do sports and different activities and hence promote the health and well-being of the children, now and in the future.
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