Health and Wellbeing in School Aged Children

Abstract

Obesity among primary school children is a growing concern in the United States of America. Obesity may be understood as gain of excessive weight. Obesity among children occurs when the energy consumption of the body is way lower than the energy intake. Schools are responsible for student's physical activity and health. Apart from education, schools must take responsibility of physical fitness of students as well. The socio economic status and level of education of parents has a great influence on the nutritional status of primary school aged children. The paper discusses the management of health and well being of school aged children. Schools have generally approached health promotion through targeted, yet fragmented programs that address specific areas such as Physical Education classes or health education. The students will be undergoing a screening every month. The underlying objective of the screening would be to assess the change in the children's cleanliness and activity.

Table of Contents

Introduction1

School health screening programs in monitoring the health and wellbeing in children1

Potential risks and complications of childhood obesity in primary school aged children3

Impact of socio-economic status and level of education on nutritional status of primary school aged children5

Health promotion and maintenance strategies7

Change in school policy7

Creation of a healthy environment8

Walking for fun8

Storytelling redefined9

Monitoring progress and evaluation of suggested strategies9

References11

Health and Wellbeing in School Aged Children

Introduction

Obesity among primary school children is a growing concern in the United States of America. Obesity may be understood as gain of excessive weight. Obesity among children occurs when the energy consumption of the body is way lower than the energy intake. Obesity in primary school children is very common in both developed as well as developing nations. However, the problem is more diverse in developed nations such as the United States of America and Australia (Clarke-Stewart, 1978).

Of the total world population, over 7 percent of the people are obese. This includes both children and adults. Anything over 27 body mass index falls in the criteria of obesity. Out of the 7 percent, 1 percent of the population is severely obese. This means that the obesity case of these people is so severe that it can lead to other health related issues.

Adolescence is marked with both cognitive and physical development as well as growth. There are many changes taking place in the body such as increase in height, size of the organs, bone density, lean muscle mass, weight and fat. Hence, since the body is growing, the body requires intake of larger amounts of energy and nutrition (Underdown, 2005). The most important elements required at the primary school age are zinc, iron and calcium. The paper discusses the management of health and well being of school aged children.

School health screening programs in monitoring the health and wellbeing in children

Schools are responsible for student's physical activity and health. Apart from education, schools must take responsibility of physical fitness of students as well. Various researches have been conducted to investigate how schools can develop their plans and ...