Obesity is a worldwide epidemic that effects many people all across the globe. Obesity is a slow onset of gaining weight, that is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and above that happens from improper nutrition and inadequate exercise. It can be prevented by many different ways such as teaching on what a proper diet entails, promoting and practicing a proper diet, being surrounded by positive influences, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle with exercise. Obesity comes with many different types of health problems from chronic to acute such as: diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, coronary vascular disease, heart attack, stroke, and even cancer. Not only does obesity affect you, it affects all the people you surround yourself with. It can be a major influence on friends and family by promoting a non-healthy lifestyle. With parents, this issue is very important, because children are highly susceptible to this influence. Children are very impressionable, and the people whom they surround themselves with have a major impact on their personality, preferences, hobbies, and more importantly, lifestyle choices. For children, who spend most of their time with their parents and usually rely on their parents for providing for them and guidance, this issue can life changing impacts on them. So, the PICOT question to be researched is: Does obesity in parents have effects on their children?
To try to answer this PICOT question Gogia, Begum (2018), researchers who are specialized in pediatrics and an assistant professor at respected universities, conducted a quantitative pre and post experimental convenient sampling study design to study the effectiveness of occupational therapy in homes with children that are overweight and obese and its impact on their quality of life. The study was conducted by taking a group of 30 obese and overweight children and “Each individual was then evaluated for B.M.I and Weight. Each individual responded to PEDS QL and ROSENBERG SELF ESTEEM SCALE. Each subject was provided 45 min of 5 days a week of occupational therapy intervention and an Occupational Therapy based Self-instructional Module. The subjects were reevaluated using PEDS QL and Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Post assessment was done after 4-week intervention programme, conducted 20sessions” (Gogia, Begum, 2018, p. 167). The independent variable of this study was occupational therapy intervention and the dependent variable was obesity and self esteem. The researchers did not list any limitations but some limitations I could see would be that there could be some inconsistency with the type of occupational therapy interventions. This could lead to false results of the research because some interventions might be more influential than others. The results showed that not only does occupational therapy improve overall quality of life, but it promotes a better lifestyle for both the parents and the child. The parents learned a lot by this study by how to prevent and treat obesity of their children, since they have the most impact on their lives. Gogia, Begum (2018) state “It is concluded that occupational therapy addresses the prevention and concerns of obesity through a holistic and client centered approach to lifestyle through participation in activities that promote health” (p. 169). It is believed that this research was done to show both parents and children the proper lifestyle and actions to take to prevent and treat childhood obesity.
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The second study presented by Li et al. (2018), is a qualitative study conducted by a variety of doctors, professors, and researchers. The phenomenon of interest Li et al. (2018) is trying to investigate is “the parental and child contributions of 83 adult body mass index (BMI)-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to obesity-related traits in children from birth to 5 years old” (p. 133). In simpler terms, the researchers were trying to find a correlation between genetics of parents and its influence on the child and their risk or contributions to obesity. This question of its influence or not was tested by “A total of 1402 individuals were genotyped for 83 SNPs. An unweighted genetic risk score (GRS) was generated. . . Repeated weight and length/height were measured at birth, 1, 2, 3 and 5 years of age, and age-specific and sex-specific weight and BMI Z-scores were computed” (Li et al., 2018, p. 133). The researchers listed that there were no limitations to their study but if I were to expect any limitations I could see calculations being a limitation. After reading this study, it is shown that this genetic and BMI testing requires a lot of calculations, which in turn can be at risk for miscalculations and errors. The key findings and results in summary showed that the genes tested that were contributing to parent’s obesity influence their children at birth and in early childhood (Li et al., 2018, p. 133). Results of this study show that only does the lifestyle and diet of a parent have effect their child in the household, but so does the genes they carry. This study can be an opportunity for parents to see that their obesity can have an effect on their child even before they are born.
The final study to investigate into the PICOT question is one done Vaughn, Martin, Ward (2018) and investigates the model parents need to be for their kids to promote a better lifestyle. These researchers both had the titles of professors or faculty at respected universities and conducted a quantitative study. The study “. . . examined the influence of parents modeling of healthy eating (“parent role modeling”) and parents' actual food intake (“parent dietary intake”) on child diet quality, and explored whether these practices work together to influence children's diets” (Vaughn, Martin, Ward, 2018, p. 102). The sample groups were chosen by having the criteria of having at least one overweight or obese parent in the household of a pre-school age child that from being chosen from a baseline of another larger previous study. Vaughn, Martin, Ward (2018) tested this influence from parents to kids by using “The Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire” (p. 102) to observe the parent’s practicing healthy eating patterns and exam their food logs. After three days of observation “Associations between parent healthy modeling and parent Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score on child HEI score were examined. . .” (Vaughn, Martin, Ward, 2018, p. 102). The variables of this study included the independent variable being the parents' healthy modeling and HEI score and the dependent variable being the children's HEI score. Vaughn, Martin, Ward (2018) listed the limitations as “. . . the cross-sectional nature of the data, the reliance on parent report, and characteristics of the study sample” (p. 106). The scale used for this type of model of study was believed to be to small or narrow of a focus and that is why it is listed as a limitation. The results and conclusion gathered by Vaughn, Martin, Ward (2018) showed that “Children whose parents had high parent healthy modeling scores had higher HEI scores. . .” (p. 102). This study proves that the parent’s model of healthy lifestyle and diet played an important role in influencing the child.
References
- Gogia, R., & Begum, R. (2018). To study the effectiveness of occupational therapy in children with overweight/obesity and its impact upon quality of life. Indian Journal of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy - An International Journal, 12(4), 166-170.
- Li, A., Robiou-Du-Pont, S., Anand, S. S., Morrison, K. M., Mcdonald, S. D., Atkinson, S. A., . . Meyre, D. (2016). Parental and child genetic contributions to obesity traits in early life based on 83 loci validated in adults: The FAMILY study. Pediatric Obesity, 13(3), 133-140.
- Vaughn, A. E., Martin, C. L., & Ward, D. S. (2018). What matters most - what parents model or what parents eat? Appetite, 126, 102-107.
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