Public Healthcare Campaign Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Public Healthcare Campaign - Essay Example The need to terminate obesity within the American society is the justification for the Task Force on Childhood Obesity that was createdby President Barack Obama. The task force is aimed at reducing the rate of childhood obesity to 5%. The state of Virginia has demonstrated active initiatives for the prevention of obesity through health promotions rather than short time fixes that may fail over time (Mehta & Chang, 2011). Among the activities of the task force is to promote healthy eating among young people and counseling them. The overweight and obesity rates tripled between 1990 and 2004 with more than 30% of adolescents in the state fated for obesity (Thompson, 2010). This is the major motivation for the need of the state to improve the health of children and adolescents. Nonetheless, the initiatives for the prevention of obesity would be predictably expensive. This part of the paper gives a critical analysis and discussion of the target population of the obesity prevention initiat ive, response, leadership roles, economic factors, and the role of social marketing in ensuring that the initiative is successful in meeting its objectives and goals. At the national level, the Let’s Move Campaign against obesity targets parents, children, mayors, governors, educators, food manufacturers, and school nutritional leaders. These groups make up the population that the national campaign of childhood obesity targets. Nonetheless, the target population is likely to differ within the state of Virginia as compared to the national population that the campaign targets (Mehta & Chang, 2011). The definition of the role of each of the groups who play a role in the prevention of obesity varies from state to state and nationally. The role by the target population varies in definition because of the differences in the levels of obesity between various states (Ambinder, 2010). The main goal of the Let’s Move campaign is to end childhood obesity, whichis describedas a na tional epidemic. However, the initiatives implementedin each of the states would vary, depending on the seriousness of the problem, its prevalence, and mortality rates. Additionally, the initiatives that each state uses to combat obesity depend on the level of the problem within the state and the views of the leaders of that state. Even though there are many interpretations within each state, most have moved from short term approaches of solving the problem of obesity to long- term programs to end obesity. The objective of the Let’s Move Campaign could be defined differently within the state of Virginia. This is because the state has unique bills introduced by the House and Senate that define the approaches used to prevent the incidence of obesity among young people. Additionally, the Let’s Move campaign would be aided by the various school and community programs, which are designedto solve the problem of obesity (Estabrooks, Fisher & Hayman, 2008). The approaches of t hese programs would be different even if they are drivena common goal. It is in this regard that it would be said that the role of the various stakeholders in childhood obesity prevention would be defined differently between the national level and within the state of Virginia. Furthermore, the food manufacturers within the state