Childhood obesity is rapidly becoming an epidemic in Canada. The prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity is consistently rising in Canada. From the most recent estimate 32% of children aged 5-17 years old is classified as either overweight or obese, which is defined as having BMI of 25-29.99, for overweight and having a BMI of 30 or over which is classified as obese. Furthermore, only 7% of Canadian children are meeting Canada’s Physical Activity Guidelines of 60 minutes of physical activity 6 days a week. Childhood obesity has been strongly linked to several chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension. Childhood obesity also is linked to being overweight or obese later on …show more content…
The initiatives include programs such as exercise campaigns including: Make Room for Play, Every Kid, and There is a Crisis in Canada. ParticipACTION is an excellent program as it includes campaigns to increases awareness on the issue of childhood obesity for parents and caregivers and it is also a great resource for caregivers with website that has tips, guidelines, benefit and statistics. The program has a section dedicated to lists that provide tips for people of all ages to increase their physical activity in order to meet Canada’s Physical Activity guideline. The ParticipACTION website and initiatives are on going and constantly updated with innovative and creative ways to help Canada combat obesity.
Challenges
One of biggest criticism lies in the fact that ParticipACTION is that it fails to consider the multi-faceted factors that contribute including genetics, diet and the social determinants of health. The program focuses on physical activity however it does not acknowledge that diet is equally a contributing factor in upholding a healthy lifestyle and decreasing the risk of obesity.
ParticipACTION does not acknowledge that combatting childhood obesity requires changes to occur on an individual level as well as a societal level, including making the …show more content…
The program was established in 2011 and was a 6-month long data collection program. Due to the short time frame, it is ultimately missing an evaluative component of how effective the initiative was. Without an evaluative component, we are unable to assess how effective the program was and where we can make adjustments and revisions in order to improve the program in the future. Also, as a result of the short time frame, the information from the program has not been updated; with the constant advancement in technology and education, the information from the report may be outdated as it is not an ongoing process. Ultimately, Our Health, Our Future includes data collection information in order to guide federal, provincial and territorial members on how to improve and influence the socio-environmental factors that affect health, but does not directly implement any changes to these