The document discusses childhood obesity as a significant health concern in the U.S., emphasizing the need for effective interventions and policies to address its rising prevalence, particularly among disadvantaged populations. It highlights the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to prevention and treatment and mentions various evidence-based strategies, including dietary changes and increased physical activity. The document concludes that collaboration among healthcare providers, parents, and communities is essential for fostering healthier lifestyles and ultimately reducing obesity rates in children.

1. Running head: PICOT STATEMENT 1
PICOT STATEMENT 5
PICOT Statement: Childhood Obesity
P-I-C-O-T Statement
P- Patients who suffer from obesity (BMI of more than
30)
I- Undertaking nutritional education, diet, and exercise
C- Comparison to nutritional education, endoscopic
bariatric surgical intervention
O- Improved health outcomes in terms of overall weight
T - A year’s time limit
PICOT Statement: Childhood Obesity
Introduction
Childhood obesity poses serious health problems in the US
as the number of overweight and obese population increases at a
rapid pace every year. The effects of this problem have arrested
the attention of policymakers, societal members, and
government agencies. This has resulted in ranking childhood
obesity as a national health concern. The adverse impacts of this
disease go beyond the health realms to include economic burden
on both personal and national budgets. While there are
numerous risk factors and various evidence-based interventions
to address this challenge, no single approach is consistently
efficacious in curbing the disease. Consequently, it is
imperative that efficacious initiatives and policies be developed

2. to address the never-ending problem of childhood obesity.
Multidisciplinary approaches are often broad and cut across all
dimensions of personal health problems. Instead of placing
emphasis solely on biomedical models, health care professionals
should also seek to promote behavior change among obesity
patients and their family members. A PICOT statement can be
utilized as an effective tool to seek interventions of addressing
childhood obesity.
PICOT Statement
Population
In the US, obesity prevalence is highest among children aged
from 6 to 11 years (Cheung et al. 2016). The disease has tripled
among this age group from 4.2 percent to 15.3 percent from
1963 to 2012. In the last three decades, increased cases of
obesity prevalence have been noted among children of all ages,
although the differences in obesity prevalence have been
recorded in terms of age, race, ethnicity, and gender (Cheung et
al. 2016). In this respect, children from socioeconomically
disadvantaged families and some racial and ethnic minorities
experience the higher median score on obesity than the
dominant white population. Higher obesity rates are often
recorded among blacks and Hispanics compared to whites. For
instance, a survey on girls in the Southwest revealed that the
yearly cases of obesity stood at 4.5 percent among Blacks, 2
percent among Hispanics, and 0.7 percent among white girls
aged from 13 to 17 years (Cheung et al. 2016). For low-income
earners, American Indians rank highest at 6.3 percent, followed
closely by Hispanics at 5.5 percent.
Intervention
Evidence-based interventions that seek to reduce childhood
obesity incidences in the country should target two major areas:
prevention and treatment. High-quality RCT has been proven as
one of the most effective preventative intervention, especially
in schools (Reilly, 2006). Such interventions involve making
changes on the school curriculum by introducing and improving
physical education, changing school meal provisions, and

3. reducing the television viewing hours. Schools should also
engage in promotional campaigns that encourage walking form
home to school (Ickes, McMullen, Haider & Sharma, 2014).
This intervention has been successful in most cases involving
girls in the sense that the risks of becoming obese are
significantly lowered. Treatment interventions should be limited
to motivated families and communities, in which the child and
parents perceive obesity as a problem. From a theoretical
perspective, treatments should be continued for longer periods
such as months to years. Diets should be modified, especially
with the use of regimen such as traffic light diet. Television
viewing habits should also be reduced (Ickes et al. 2014).
Furthermore, treatment should be aimed at encouraging families
to self-monitor their lifestyle. Finally, more time should be
offered for consulting with family members.
Comparison
Being a member of a multidisciplinary team, the nurse
practitioner performs the task of offering standardized care and
advocacy support for healthy community environments. In
addition, the nurse helps to ensures that there is proper
coverage, access to, and incentives for regular obesity
prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment (Vine et al.
2013). There is also need to promote active living and healthy
eating at work. Finally, focus should be on promoting healthy
living during weight gain. There is also need to expand the role
of health care providers, in childhood obesity prevention.
Outcome
When a nurse is involved as one of the primary members in the
multidisciplinary team approach, the child should be guaranteed
of better continuity of care. The outcomes of interventions
should include reduced obesity risks and curriculum
adjustments for sustainable change to make it cost-effective
(Ross et al. 2010). The curriculum modifications should be
generalizable. One of the leading causes of failure of previous
interventions is that they targeted modifications at the micro
levels. This means that targeting individual children, families,

4. or schools make it harder to have positive outcomes or impacts
on the many other influences on weight status that affect the
environment at the macro levels. Obesity control efforts that
are successful should require a more macro-environmental
strategy in addition to the micro level behavioral adjustments.
Time
Obesity treatment and management should be a process that
takes months to years. This is because the focus should not just
be on the individual level, but also on the general behavioral
patterns of a person’s family, friends, and society at large (Ross
et al. 2010). Therefore, interventions should be
multidisciplinary and aim at changing the behavior of the
patient by promoting long term positive outcomes. Precautions
to monitor blood pressure can be done every two weeks or on a
monthly basis. Medications such as sibutramine can be utilized
for periods of up to one year. However, its use should be
discontinued in patients whose weight loss stabilizes at less
than five percent of their initial body weight.
References
Cheung, P. C., Cunningham, S. A., Narayan, K. V., & Kramer,
M. R. (2016). Childhood obesity
incidence in the United States: a systematic review. Childhood
Obesity, 12(1), 1-11.
Ickes, M. J., McMullen, J., Haider, T., & Sharma, M. (2014).
Global school-based childhood
obesity interventions: a review. International journal of
environmental research and
public health, 11(9), 8940-8961.
McGrath, S. M. (2017). Childhood Obesity Comorbitities
Awareness Hospital-based Education
(Doctoral Dissertation), Walden University, Minneapolis,
Washington.
Reilly, J. J. (2006). Obesity in childhood and adolescence:
evidence based clinical and public
health perspectives. Postgraduate medical journal, 82(969), 429-

5. 437.
Ross, M. M., Kolbash, S., Cohen, G. M., & Skelton, J. A.
(2010). Multidisciplinary treatment of
pediatric obesity: nutrition evaluation and
management. Nutrition in Clinical
Practice, 25(4), 327-334.
Vine, M., Hargreaves, M. B., Briefel, R. R., & Orfield, C.
(2013). Expanding the role of primary
care in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity: a
review of clinic-and
community-based recommendations and interventions. Journal
of obesity, 2013.
Running head: CAPSTONE PROJECT TOPIC SELECTION
AND APPROVAL 1
CAPSTONE PROJECT TOPIC SELECTION AND APPROVAL
2
Capstone Project Topic Selection and Approval
Grand Canyon University: NRS-490
According to the American Heart Association (2018), one third
of the children and adolescents are affected by obesity in the
United States. Going into the millennium, its prevalence had
tripled so much so that it is regarded as the number one health
concerns among parents today. In other parts of the world, the
problem is rapidly growing, and it affects middle class and low-
income countries alike. A research conducted by Karnik &
Kanekar (2012) estimated that over 41 million children in

6. Africa and Asia under the age of five were found to be obese.
Of these, it has been estimated that over 116,000 die each year.
Comment by Melissa Reedy: This is a little awkward as
written but contains great information, perhaps write it as a
more of a comparative type of paragraph where you are
introducing the issue of obesity in America but comparing to
the fact that it is also an issue worldwide
Children with obesity have a higher risk of getting serious
diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Diabetes
type II, coronary heart disease, respiratory and stroke problems
(Hales, Carroll, Fryar & Ogden, 2017). Additionally, most of
them grow up with the condition, which results to more health
issues that are psychological in nature, including low self-
esteem, negative body image and sometimes depression. It is
also true that excessive body weight is greatly associated with
earlier risk of obesity-related induced disease and death in
adulthood (Cunningham, Kramer & Narayan, 2014).
The occurrence of obesity in the United states of American can
be attributed to the availability of “good- tasting” food with
high calorie. Furthermore, these foods are not expensive, yet
their health effects are disastrous. This, accompanied with a
lack of physical activity and inactive behavior results to
childhood obesity. All these factors are imparted by family
characteristics and environmental factors. For instance, if
parents cultivate the culture of eating junk food at home from a
young age, chances are that their child will become obese.
Watching TV and other inactive activities should also be
discouraged lest children become dormant. Advertisements that
encourage the consumption of junk food also attracts children
into poor eating habits. It is also important to note that genetic
factors of the family can also contribute to child obesity
(Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002) Comment by Melissa
Reedy: Capitalize Comment by Melissa Reedy: Calories and
then comma Comment by Melissa Reedy: In
The impact of Child obesity goes beyond health-related
issues as it can negatively impact the child’s social status. More

7. often it brings anxiety, self- esteem and depression because
obese children tend to be more vulnerable than the normal kids
in school (Ludwig, 2018). It is also associated with eating
disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa. All these affect the health of
the child, its wellbeing and leads to poor performance because
of the low quality of life the child is experiencing (Reilly, &
Kelly, 2011). Comment by Melissa Reedy: No capitalization
Comment by Melissa Reedy: I don’t know that I would use
normal here because really what defines normal? Comment by
Melissa Reedy: A child is not an it
Clearly, so much needs to be done to address this issue. First,
environmental change is inevitable, and perhaps the key and
solution to obesity in children. Instead of having vending
machines in schools that are full of 'junk' foods, parents and
schools should opt for healthier food options, emphasize on
physical activities and constantly remind kids about the effects
of unhealthy eating habits. The government should set tighter
rules and regulation on advertisements of fast-foods by limiting
them. All said and done, obtaining and maintaining an
appropriate body weight is extremely important and the best
way to achieve this is by doing it gradually. Children and
adolescents should measure their weight relative to their height
using the Body Mass Index (BMI) (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, &
Flegal, 2014).
In conclusion, families and the health care professionals should
understand that childhood obesity is a serious issue in the
society today. We ought to know that there is no approved
medication for childhood obesity in American, for fact, the
American association of pediatrician deter the use of such
medication to control the weight in children. The current efforts
to help tame it cannot be disregarded, but more needs to be
done. Its effects are long lasting, meaning that it is threatening
the future of millions of children that can easily be avoided. All
healthcare practitioners should therefore join hands and fight it
with all available means such as educating parents on how to
promote healthy lifestyle for a greater future (Bleich, Segal,

8. Wilson, & Wang, 2013).
Dami remember to include this in this paper:
1. The problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational
need that will be the focus of the project-you have well defined
the issue and yes, some solutions but not YOUR solution-
remember this is YOUR project-you need to define your
problem and come up a solution to this problem that YOU are
going to implement.
2. The setting or context in which the problem, issue,
suggestion, initiative, or educational need can be observed-you
need to give a specific setting-do you work in a school where
you are noticing and increase in childhood obesity and you are
going to tackle making the vending machines have more healthy
choices?? You need to define your setting
3. A description providing a high level of detail regarding the
problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need.
4. Impact of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or
educational need on the work environment, the quality of care
provided by staff, and patient outcomes.
5. Significance of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or
educational need and its implications to nursing.
6. A proposed solution to the identified project topic-you need
to be specific to what you are going to do for your proposed
issue.

9. References
Bleich, S. N., Segal, J., Wu, Y., Wilson, R., & Wang, Y. (2013).
Systematic review of community-based childhood obesity
prevention studies. Pediatrics, 132(1), e201-e210.
Cunningham, S. A., Kramer, M. R., & Narayan, K. V. (2014).
Incidence of childhood obesity in the United States. New
England Journal of Medicine, 370(5), 403-411.
Ebbeling, C. B., Pawlak, D. B., & Ludwig, D. S. (2002).
Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure.
The lancet, 360(9331), 473-482.
Hales, C. M., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Ogden, C. L.
(2017). Prevalence of obesity among adults and youth: United
States, 2015-2016. US Department of Health and Human
Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National
Center for Health Statistics.
Han, J. C., Lawlor, D. A., & Kimm, S. Y. (2010). Childhood
obesity. The Lancet, 375(9727), 1737-1748.
Karnik, S., & Kanekar, A. (2012). Childhood obesity: a global
public health crisis. International journal of preventive
medicine, 3(1), 1.
Ludwig, D. S. (2018). Epidemic Childhood Obesity: Not Yet the
End of the Beginning. Pediatrics, e20174078.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. M.
(2014). Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United
States, 2011-2012. Jama, 311(8), 806-814.
Reilly, J. J., & Kelly, J. (2011). Long-term impact of
overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence on
morbidity and premature mortality in adulthood: systematic
review. International journal of obesity, 35(7), 891.