The Background and Methodology of Childhood Obesity

Over the years childhood obesity has grown by more than 9 million, and this number is expected to grow by even more. Parents are not always heard, and often schools are not run the way they would prefer. In this article parents are given a voice and a chance to be heard on what they feel is important for their children’s health. In this article the researchers survey the parents and get their opinions on what they feel needs to be done to help the fight against childhood obesity. Problem to solve: Childhood obesity is the main focus in this article.

This paper helps to give the parents their view of how schools are dealing with childhood obesity. Childhood obesity has been on a steady rise over the past few years. Approximately over 9 million children are obese and that number continues to rise (Murphy & Polivka, 2007). Schools play a very important role in children’s lives. There are many health issues that can arise due to obesity if it is not treated. Treating this disease can be as easy as more physical activity and a healthier diet. Unfortunately, children are eating more unhealthy foods and are engaged in less physical activities.

Myers and Vargas decided to survey 200 people to get their views on childhood obesity (Murphy & Polivka, 2007). In this article there is discussion on how the parents feel and what they think can be done to try and help fix this issue. Health Care Administrators: With all the money that is spent helping to treat childhood obesity, it is very important that health care administrators study this issue. There was $127 million spent for hospital cost in 1999 alone, and this number is still on the rise.

By 2025 it is estimated that the cost will raise $100 billion (Murphy & Polivka, 2007). Schools can help and play a huge role in the way children choose to live their lives. Children spend a huge part of their day at school, and by providing healthier lunches and more exercise we can help to decrease the amount of children that are going to the doctor because of issues from obesity. Health care administrators can come up with plans for the doctors to suggest to parents who bring their children in for check-ups.

Making suggestions for healthier lifestyles should be a priority in many physicians’ offices and health care administrators can help to make that happen. Purpose: It seems as though the purpose of this study is to inform or let the reader know about the statistics behind childhood obesity. They wanted the reader to be aware of the risks of childhood obesity and what parents think schools can do to help their children by offering programs to teach about healthier lifestyles and more physical activities.

Many students feel as though gym and physical activities can cause embarrassing moments from their peers, and they also stated that the school lunches were low quality, so the vending machines were more convenient (Murphy & Polivka, 2007). School nurses are responsible for creating these changes and this paper tells ways that these changes can be made. Research Question: A research question is basically the first step the researcher must conduct before starting their research.

It is known as the methodological point and any questions that are asked should be answered during the research (Colorado State University, 2012). It should be defined clearly as well as accurately. It can be used for quantitative research. This step allows the researcher to figure out what he or she wants to know the most (Colorado State University, 2012). This article did not clearly state a question, but if there were to be a question it would probably be, do parents view schools as having a big impact on their child’s health and if so what can be done to provide a healthier environment?

Hypothesis: A research hypothesis is a statement that is created by the researcher and it is a speculation of what they believe the outcome will be. This article does not have a hypothesis directly stated; the authors only provide statistics within each paragraph. If there were to be a hypothesis it would probably state that the parents who will partake in the survey will mostly all agree that schools play a big role in their child’s life and providing healthier foods and more exercise would be a positive change.

Independent and Dependent Variables: An independent and dependent variable are two different variables. An independent variable is a variable that can be wielded by the researcher. It is basically a hypothesized in order to influence or affect the dependent variable. The independent variable is measured from the researcher. The researcher assigns an experimental or a controlled condition to the participants. The independent variables would be the surveys and what they say prior to the participants taking the survey (Murphy & Polivka, 2007).

The dependent variables would be the participants that partake in the survey (Murphy & Polivka, 2007). Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework is used in research to give details or to create an outline of what the possible actions may be. It is used to try and connect the aspects of the topic. The theoretical framework that was conducted in this article was what the relationship between a parent’s perception of their child’s BMI and obesity and what the schools role is in preventing as well as treating the children’s obesity issues (Murphy & Polivka, 2007).

Literature Review: Literature review is important because it allows the researcher to find out what has already been discovered and what has not. It gives them a chance to create a research strategy that works best for them. It gives them a chance to avoid other researcher’s mistakes. Instead of surveying the school nurses or random people, the researchers in this article asked the parents how they feel and what they feel is important to keep their children on a healthy track so that they do not become obese (Murphy & Polivka, 2007).

Study Design: There are many research designs that can be used. Descriptive design, correlation studies, semi-experimental designs, experimental designs, reviewing other research, and test study before conducting full-scale study (Experiment-Resources. com, 2012). This article is more of a descriptive design because it was based off of surveys. There was one subject studied which was childhood obesity and how schools affect children’s health (Murphy & Polivka, 2007). It was not clearly stated how long the study took.

Childhood obesity is a growing issue and there are many contributions to this problem. Children spend most of their lives at school, so changing the ways that schools handle health issues is important. By removing vending machines, providing healthy programs, and allowing more physical activities can be a positive change. When the school nurses, parents, and children are all on the same page healthier changes might start to show and the level of childhood obesity may start to decrease.