The Thrifty Phenotype: An Adaptation in Growth or Metabolism? Essay Example

Discuss how you would conduct a needs assessment for your selected problem and the target population. Why is this approach appropriate for the problem you have identified? Support your response with evidence from the literature.

The starting point in the process of instigating obesity care involves a careful consideration of the victim’s history which sheds light on the concerns as well as issues that guide in the treatment of obesity (Wells, 2011). The use of obesity history of the patient facilitates for the development of treatment recommendations that are more tailored and also consistent to meet the goals as well as the needs of a specific patient.

Obesity involves a complex disease with intricate conditions such that, reversal of the trend can only be effectively addressed though behavioral changes among the victim coupled with evading societal barriers that are allied to choices of healthy lifestyle. Treatment of obesity is best achieved through adoption of dieting, behavioral changes and with involvement in physical exercises (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2014). While results of dieting in weight loss are often short term, physical exercises and behavioral changes have much more sustainable long term effects. However, the three programs needs to be implemented at the same time to achieve high effectiveness of weight management on the long term in contrast the short term extreme reduction in weight.

Health care providers are usually charged with a critical responsibility of supporting measures of prevention coupled with promoting constructing lifestyle behaviors along with recognize and offering treatments to comorbidities that are allied to obesity (Smith, Hay, Campbell & Trollor, 2011). The responsibility of patient counseling on issues of effectivess and safety of programs aimed at weight loss and management also rests on healthcare providers.

Describe your proposed data collection methods and evaluate any challenges you might encounter.

A number of approaches are applicable for the purpose of collecting the needed data from the population of participants in this study, and this involve the use of focus interviews, written surveys as well as group interviews. These are the approaches that are perceived to facilitate in collecting the most crucial data from a big cross section of respondents in this research on needs assessment for obesity. However, the most preferred approach in this case is written survey, also called questionnaires. The effectiveness of questionnaires in this regard were attributed to their self reporting nature since the participants are given standard and specific questions to which they respond to, thus facilitating for the retrieval of highly structured data. Administering questionnaires or written surveys is also relatively easy and both qualitative and quantitative application is a possibility on the basis of applicable types of questions used in the investigation (Hodges & Videto, 2011).

Gathering information from a mass of respondents is however best achievable by means of quantitative type of questionnaires. Consequently, the use of questionnaires proves to be good method of relative or comparative analysis. The questionnaires that were applied in this scenario addressed a wide range of data sources so that diverse opinions from the respondents could be gathered pertaining to needs assessment for obesity. As in every research, limitations in form of challenges arise, and in this case, the honesty of participants in answering the study questions posed the most significant challenge.

Reference

Hodges, B. C., & Videto, D. M. (2011). Assessment and planning in health programs (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Naude, CE; Schoonees, A; Senekal, M; Young, T; Garner, P; Volmink, J (2014). “Low carbohydrate versus isoenergetic balanced diets for reducing weight and cardiovascular risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis.”. PLOS ONE (Research Support) 9 (7).

Smith, E., Hay, P., Campbell, L. & Trollor, J., (2011). “A review of the association between obesity and cognitive function across the lifespan: implications for novel approaches to            prevention and treatment”. Obesity Reviews (Review) 12 (9): 740–755.

Wells, J. C., (2011). “The thrifty phenotype: An adaptation in growth or metabolism?”. American Journal of Human Biology (Review) 23 (1): 65–75.

Yanovski, S. Z. & Yanovski, J. A., (2014). “Long-term drug treatment for obesity: a systematic and clinical review.”  Journal of the American Medical Association 311 (1): 74–86.