1. State your health outcome of interest. (It could be the one you used for week #2 or another one.) Pick two key behaviors that are important factors leading to your health outcome. Explain the importance of these behaviors either for etiology, prevention, or intervention. (If none of the behaviors in the readings are important for your health outcome, suggest another behavior that is.)
Health outcome of interest is childhood obesity.
Healthy diet: A healthy and nutritious diet is essential for prevention of childhood obesity. In low-income areas, access to ingredients for well balanced diets is reduced. In addition, fast food and fried food are often both easier to access and cheaper. Interventions: several interventions have been incorporated in public policy in recent years that may improve access to healthy diets for all. Some of these efforts include taxation of sugary drinks and improved nutrition in the school systems.
Physical activity: Physical activity is key for good health and well being and an active lifestyle can prevent obesity and improve the health of obese individuals. The activeness of children has decreased over the last decade and this effect is notable is those of both high and low SES. Reasons for this include reducing or eliminating physical education from school curricula, high costs for extracurricular sport participation, lack of access to extracurricular clubs in low SES areas, and increased access to television and video game systems.
2. Describe how you would study the role of one of the behaviors described for question #1 and your health outcome of interest. Incorporate a social factor (e.g. race/ethnicity, social exclusion, stress) in the study approach.
Physical Activity: I would be interested in evaluating the impact of after school physical activity programs on reduction of childhood obesity particularly in low SES areas where such programs are limited because of increased cost and decreased access to equipment or space. Many children in these areas are cared for in community-based clinics. My project would involve creation of an afterschool program that provides a range of physical activities that children could participate in at no cost. These programs would be rolled out at the clinic itself or at nearby locations that are easily accessible to all. Measures of growth including weight, height, and waist circumference would be measured before study as well as during and after a set period of intervention.
3. If key health behaviors (e.g. smoking, exercise, nutritious diet) are strongly influenced by neighborhood, income, and/or education, do we need to continue to study how these behaviors influence health outcomes? Why or why not?
Absolutely! Behaviors that are influenced by such factors mean that they can be improved (e.g. nutrition) or reduced (e.g. smoking). But projects to change those behaviors for the better will always need some assistance, be it financial, political or educational, and the only way to access those resources is to ensure that the impact of those behaviors on health outcomes be known and shown in a variety of populations and situations.