Social Media Campaign: Awareness of Healthy Diets

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Health Disparities and Inequalities in Georgia
Primary Community Resources and Primary Prevention Resources
Underlying Causes of the Health Concern
Evidence-Based Practice
Data at State and County Levels
Community Health Nursing Social Media Campaign Strategy
References

Introduction

The social media campaign aims to increase awareness of healthy diets among high-risk obese teenagers in Georgia’s African American and Latina communities. The campaign will focus on nutrition assistance programs among low-income neighborhoods as an intervention strategy for minimizing obesity rates in Georgia. Over 18% of children between 10-17 years are considered overweight in the (BMI>85 and <95th) percentiles (“Georgia,” n.d.). Consequently, Georgia is ranked 14 out of 50 states with high obesity (“Georgia,” n.d.). Moreover, approximately 77% of children in Georgia have High BMI rates (Helland & Nordbotten, 2021). Nutrition assistance programs are considered healthy as they minimize the risk of increased body weight, overweight, or obesity. Reducing calorie-dense foods among African American and Hispanic communities will minimize excessive caloric intake.

Health Disparities and Inequalities in Georgia

Disparities in access to healthy foods follow ethnic, racial, socio-economic status, and geographic location. The inexpensive nature of calorie-rich foods contributes to poor eating habits in urban areas. For example, in 2019, Georgian children living below federal poverty levels remained at 19.5%, translating to 479,379 minors (“Children living in poverty in Georgia,” n.d). The most affected groups are native Hawaiians at 39.8%, Alaskan natives at 28.5%, non-Hispanic Americans at 22.9%, and Hispanics at 20% (Willis, 2020). Boys have a higher risk of becoming obese compared to girls in Georgia.

Primary Community Resources and Primary Prevention Resources

Georgia incorporates state, regional, and local resources in minimizing school-based obesity. Georgia SHAPE initiative seeks to achieve healthy weight among 69% of children by 2023 (“About Georgia shape,” n.d). In 1996, the Atlanta physical activity and nutrition (PAN) instituted a Go Girls health behavior intervention program. ‘Go Girls’ is a program that targets African American adolescent girls in improving their diets and physical activity. In 1996, the Georgia Coalition for nutrition education (GCNE) implemented state-level policies to address childhood nutrition and physical exercise (Satcher, 2017). In 999, Kids Health or ‘HealthMPowers’ was established by a non-profit organization to enhance school-based healthy eating and physical activity.

Underlying Causes of the Health Concern

Childhood obesity comes from multiple factors such as genetics, environment, and socio-economic status. Genetic factors define metabolism attributes that result in excess weight gain. Environmental factors contributing to high obesity include fast foods, minimal physical activity, and sedentary lifestyles (Diao et al., 2020). The school environment incorporates vending machines that dispense snack bars, sodas, or fried vegetables (Blomme et. 2020). Low-income neighborhoods have limited access to large grocery stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. Disparities in access indicate more than a 1-mile distance to the nearest store.

Evidence-Based Practice

Health education interventions in school settings improve the public health potential of lowering BMI among teenagers. The government utilizes health education in schools as part of the childhood obesity strategy (Jacob et al., 2021). Schools will be the targets of the nutrition education campaign. Schools admit many teenagers and adolescents offer opportunities to practice healthy eating patterns to high-risk populations. Teenagers from low-income communities access one to three main meals from the school cafeteria.

Data at State and County Levels

Georgia struggles to meet the global nutrition targets to minimize rising cases of overweight children. Youth risk behavior surveillance systems reported that 14.8% of high school teenagers were obese in the United States, while 15.6% were considered overweight (Pirani, 2018). Georgia is ranked 18th out of 51 in teenage obesity among 10-17-year-olds (Pirani, 2018). Poorer rankings are reported among children from 2-4 years at 36 out of 51 (Pirani, 2018). Moreover, Paulding county’s ranking has a health outcome of 9 and a health factor of 18 (Blomme et al., 2020). Poor health outcomes cover factors such as length of life and quality of life.

Social Media Campaign Objective

The objective of the nutrition education promotion campaign will encourage students to adopt healthy eating habits. Nurses based in primary healthcare facilities are mandated with health promotion activities to prevent and control obesity (Braga et al., 2020). The healthy snack campaign will promote science-based nutritional standards for snacks and beverages provided in schools. The Healthy snack guidelines will increase food items such as vegetables, dairy products, fruits, proteins, and whole-grain products.

Population-Focused Social Marketing Interventions

Social marketing seeks to promote changes in behavior or communicate information to a target audience. Population-focused social marketing interventions will include nutrition communication targeting parents and food marketing targeting schools in Georgia (Akbar et al., 2021). Parents will benefit from healthy eating seminars, home nutrition charts, and nutrient analysis checklists. However, schools will be required to limit the marketing of processed foods, fast foods, and soft drinks in the school compound. School-based marketing for brands will be replaced with healthy food items such as fruits or low-fat dairy products (Akbar et al., 2021). Schools will offer students free water in cafeterias, play yards, school days, and after-school activities.

The Social Media Platform

Facebook will be appropriate for reaching parents of at-risk teenagers. Facebook is a public social media platform that is accessible to anyone. Healthcare providers prefer the platform for providing users with information in video, links, images, and long text formats (Abo-Alhija, 2021). Organizations promote products on Facebook pages, personal profiles, or groups. Users must have personal profiles to log in and monitor user metrics such as comments, shares, notifications, or likes. Facebook pages offer demographic data for analyzing content reach and page interactions.

Benefits of Social Media Platforms

Facebook is an easy platform to use to enhance information dissemination to parents concerning enrollment and attendance of in-person intervention programs. Facebook users prefer engaging video content and nutritional information during cooking demonstrations, cultural recipes, or events. Popularity and high internet penetration mean over 47% of adults and 72% of youth can access Facebook (Swindle et al., 2018). Consequently, personal stories generate more impact on stakeholders through high engagement with the platform.

The Benefit of Health Message

The coordinated school health (CSH) program will promote health education, school health services, and nutritional information. Guidance to healthy eating habits will come from nutritionists, endocrinologists, or anthropometric evaluations (Braga et al., 2020). The goal is to improve students’ knowledge of the various food groups, healthy food preparation methods, and malnutrition symptoms among patients. School lunches offer opportunities for teenagers to practice healthy eating habits as a daily routine. Moreover, policymakers will prioritize teenagers from low-income communities in accessing a healthy combination of meals from the school cafeteria.

Best Practices

Engaging posts must include various content such as videos, quizzes, widgets, and images. Best practices involve hiring social media strategists to identify campaign objectives to identify pictures. Campaign strategists must visit Facebook sites posting similar content to assess user engagement rates, cultures, commenting policies, and functionality (Elsayed et al., 2021). The communication strategy must meet healthcare objectives such as BMI reduction or diabetes screening programs. Employees must have adequate financial and human resources to keep the campaign going.

Stakeholder Roles and Responsibilities

Stakeholders involved in the project will include members of school committees. School committees will include parents, district food service managers, and healthcare professionals. School personnel will include the school nurse, district administrators, physical education instructors, and staff members (Vall et al., 2017). School personnel will ensure the implementation of health and nutritional education curriculums. The principal will ensure school personnel adheres to new regulations surrounding the nutritional components of school lunches.

Potential Public and Private Partnerships

The ten-year Georgia SHAPE statewide program integrates over 125 philanthropic, private sector, and government entities. The governor’s advisory council on childhood obesity will incorporate district-level recommendations from government offices, charitable organizations, and the private sector. Government institutions will include the department of public health, education, and the medical community (Vall et al., 2017). Evidence-based nutritional information will come from academic experts such as universities or research facilities.

Timeline

The social media campaign will cover six months to achieve short-term and long-term goals. The first month will incorporate the campaign planning phase will identify the population health problem that needs urgent attention. The second month will require mapping key stakeholder needs such as parents, the private sector, and the ministry of health. The third month will incorporate advocacy duties, and in the fourth month, campaign managers will include key stakeholders.

Campaign Effectiveness

Educators in Georgia will collect physical measurements of the BMI of all children enrolled in public schools. The FitnessGram is a fitness assessment tool that incorporates scientific standards for schools to evaluate fitness levels among students. Schools will collect BMI measurements by classifying high-risk students within and outside the healthy fitness zone. Students in the BMI 85th <95th or BMI>95th percentile will be classified as overweight and obese, respectively (Vall et al., 2017). Results from the baseline assessment data will be used to identify student needs, policy reviews, and improvement areas.

The Costs of Implementing your Campaign

The school lunch program is considered the fifth largest in the United States. Consequently, the Cost of the social media campaign will reach $125,000 depending on resources available, objectives of the campaign, coverage levels, and infrastructure development levels. $5,000 grants will be allocated to paying personnel in the media production team mandated with developing the campaign materials (Blomme et al., 2020). Travel expenses will be vital during the planning phase to analyze stakeholder feedback. Resources include partnerships with local farmers or subsidies for low-income families.

Promote Healthier Populations

Nurses lead healthcare teams in promoting population-based healthcare interventions to manage chronic illness. The social media campaign aims to increase awareness of high-risk communities’ healthy diets, portion sizes, calorie-dense foods, and nutrient-poor foods. Guidance through lifestyle changes is attributed to reduced weight by 5% among high-risk populations who struggle with disease comorbidities (Braga et al., 2020). Successful weight stabilization programs depict positive results for up to three years after the intervention. Patients who struggle with extreme obesity are referred to specialist clinics for advanced interventions such as bariatric surgery.

Future Nursing Practice

Primary healthcare facilities seek nurses with experience in handling teenagers with chronic health conditions to healthy lifestyle habits. The social media campaign will provide data on the factors contributing to resistance toward lifestyle change among teenagers (Braga et al., 2020). Analyzing the dietary profiles of a community will help me as a nurse in formulating effective and culture-sensitive weight loss programs. I seek to develop healthy diet combinations that help my patients burn body fat rather than rely on stored glucose. My goal is to improve the production of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose, and fasting insulin among high-risk patients.

References

Abo-Alhija, W. (2021). Action research to examine the effects of integrating Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in online Math classes on students’ engagement. Technium Social Sciences Journal, 18, 146. Web.

About Georgia Shape. Georgia Department of Public Health. Web.

Akbar, M. B., Garnelo-Gomez, I., Ndupu, L., Barnes, E., & Foster, C. (2021). An analysis of social marketing practice: Factors associated with success.Health Marketing Quarterly, 1-21. Web.

Blomme, C., Roubal, A., Givens, M., Johnson, S., Brown, L. 2020 County health rankings report. Georgia. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Web.

Braga, V. A. S., Jesus, M. C. P. D., Conz, C. A., Silva, M. H. D., Tavares, R. E., & Merighi, M. A. B. (2020). Actions of nurses toward obesity in primary health care units. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 73. Web.

Children living in poverty in Georgia. Kids count data center. Web.

Diao, H., Wang, H., Yang, L., & Li, T. (2020). The impacts of multiple obesity-related interventions on quality of life in children and adolescents: A randomized controlled trial. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 18(1), 1-9. Web.

Elsayed, Y., Hefny, M., Khan, M., Marghany, M., Radwan, A., & Elmohandes, N. (2021). Investigating Chain and Independent Restaurants’ Facebook Presence: A Step Forward Towards Measuring their Online Image. Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality, 20(3), 130-147. Web.

Georgia. State of Childhood Obesity. Web.

Helland, M. H., & Nordbotten, G. L. (2021). Dietary changes, motivators, and barriers affecting diet and physical activity among overweight and obese: A mixed methods approach.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(20), 10582. Web.

Jacob, C. M., Hardy-Johnson, P. L., Inskip, H. M., Morris, T., Parsons, C. M., Barrett, M., Hanson, M., Townsend, K., & Baird, J. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of school-based interventions with health education to reduce body mass index in adolescents aged 10 to 19 years. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 18(1), 1-22. Web.

Pirani, F. (2018). Georgia adult, teen obesity rates among worst in America. The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Web.

Satcher, D. (2017). Childhood obesity in Georgia. Public Health Reports, 132(2_suppl), 7S-8S. Web.

Swindle, T. M., Ward, W. L., & Whiteside-Mansell, L. (2018). Facebook: The use of social media to engage parents in a preschool obesity prevention curriculum.Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 50(1), 4-10. Web.

Vall, E. A., Kibbe, D. L., Greene, C., Smith, K. S., & O’Connor, J. C. (2017). Leading the way in preventing childhood obesity in Georgia. Public Health Reports, 132(2_suppl), 3S-6S. Web.

Willis, K., (2020). Here’s how many Georgia youth are obese, according to new report. Journal Constitution. Web.

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