Increasing Exercise to reduce obesity
Understanding the issue
Various diseases resulting from obesity have led to several people losing lives annually. Obesity is a health complication that results from the accumulation of excess fat in a person’s body, to an extent that life expectancy is reduced, and a person experiences increased health problems. Hector et al. (2012) opine that obesity is as a result of genetics, overeating, physical inactivity, slow metabolism, and poor diets. Individuals with obesity are vulnerable to various diseases, in particular, heart diseases, certain types of cancer, osteoarthritis, and type 2 diabetes. The recommended ways of treating obesity is dieting and physical exercise, although several people have found it hard to maintain either practices. The rate at which people become obese across the globe is of great concern, and this is attributed to the fact that children, youths, young adults, as well as old adults, are ignorant and negligent of the possible implications of practices such as overeating and physical inactivity (Hector et al., 2012). Today, two out of every five households have persons with obesity. It is not right to discriminate obese individuals owing to the fact that some of them inherited the condition. Poor eating habits are on the rise, and there is no glimmer of hope that it will stop in the near future. With the introduction of genetically modified foods and related products, as well as the increase in advertisements of foods with high carbohydrate levels, people do not have to blame themselves for the increase in deaths resulting from obesity. According to Hector et al. (2012), in most households, people are ashamed of or avoid talking about obesity and its implications on health. Parents have been seen to encourage inactivity among their children, and this trend is worrisome. Apparently, engagement in other social activities such as excessive consumption of alcohol especially by the youth and adults has led to an increase in obesity among people. There is a misconception that obesity is an indication of how wealthy a person is. Such a misconception is leading most youths down the drain. As argued by Ewa (2014), the high negligence and ignorance levels among people worldwide are likely to see cases of obesity reach advanced levels. With the increase in cases of obesity, the mortality rate across the world will continue to rise. The fact that obesity is considered a serious health issue currently is owed to the several lives lost annually, and this has had negative impacts on the global economy. A change in physical activity as well as eating habits will play an integral role in reducing the number of lives lost due to the health complications and diseases that result from obesity. Unless people accept their inability to maintain good eating habits and physical inactivity, the levels of obesity will remain uncontrollable thus causing loss of several innocent lives which in the end will affect the global economy. In a bid to cut down the prevalence of obesity worldwide, international organizations, as well as governments, have come up with campaigns to increase physical exercises to reduce obesity. The WHO has funded awareness campaigns across continents, and they have targeted children, youths, and the old generation. The WHO’s objective is to make people aware of the health implications of obesity and the need to engage in physical exercises or activities. The product of the social marketing campaigns adopted by various organizations is information or knowledge about the health implications of obesity, and how important engagement in physical activities is. The campaigns have been done in public places such as town centers, market centers, stadia, and in households with an aim of making people aware of the health condition. The promotion has been facilitated through advertisements in mass media, print media, and social media while the price expected from the target audience during the campaigns is an increase in physical exercise in order to eliminate obesity. The campaigns have had evident impacts because, in the recent years, the number of people, especially among youths and adults with obesity has decreased significantly. This is attributed to the fact that the campaigns have made people aware of the importance of physical exercises as well as dieting. Campaign strategies used previously can still play an integral role in enhancing awareness of the health implications of obesity among, and this could include advertisements in the media.
Behavior Change and segmentation
In a bid to increase exercises to reduce obesity, a campaign by the name “Say No to Obesity” is done across the world. The campaign is facilitated through the mass media, print media, as well as the social media, and the use of the three media platforms ensures that information about increasing physical exercises to reduce obesity reaches a large audience over a short period. The campaign intends to have a positive impact by reducing the number of people with obesity, thus reducing the number of deaths caused by diseases such as heart diseases, specific types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes. The desired behavior is that people embrace or engage in physical activities and exercises, and thus the campaign aims at convincing the audience to embrace physical activity and stop poor eating habits. The campaign has a number of objectives of which one of them is to reach a number of people in a short duration. The other objective of the campaign is to reduce the number of deaths resulting from heart diseases, specific types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, as well as osteoarthritis. It is believed that the objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. The target audience of the campaign is children, youths, and adults as they are physically inactive and have poor eating habits. The behavior change model adopted by the campaign is that of influencing the influencers. Zimmet (2010) argues that this involves enhancing increase in exercise to reduce obesity awareness among influencers who in turn facilitate behavior change among obese individuals. After that, it would be easy for the target audience to change their behavior because of the pressure and advice they would have from their influencers. It is expected that there would be a significant change in behavior among the targeted individuals through this behavior model.
Purpose and Focus of the campaign
Facilitation of the increase in physical exercise to reduce obesity, as well as a change in eating habits among people is the major purposes of the campaign. The campaign through the media; social, mass and print will ensure that there is a significant difference in the way of life among people. For instance, the campaign aims at convincing people to halt poor eating habits as well as engaging in physical activities or exercises. The campaign puts in place various ethical considerations in order to achieve its objectives. One of the ethical considerations is the collaboration with the victims; it is perceived that like any other campaign, the collaboration between the victims of obesity and the people doing the campaign will lead to a successful campaign. This will involve obese people responding to questions posed by people doing the campaign. Positive and appropriate language will also be used during the campaign, and this will encourage interaction among the victims, as well as their cooperation with the people managing the campaign. With the strategies put in place, the objectives of the campaign are likely to be achieved.
Segmentation and Target Audiences Selection
The target audience of the campaign is determined or segmented basing on a number of factors. One of the factors is demographic, and this involves the selection of the audience in terms of age, family size, gender, education, religion, as well as ethnicity. In this campaign, age is the demographic factor used as the target audience is divided into children, adolescents, the young adults, and the old adults. The other factor used in segmentation is geographic, and this involves the world region, country, city, metro size, density, and climate. The campaign targets every corner of the world and every country, and it looks forward to achieving this through the media. Information sent through the media can reach several people at the same time, and this is why the use of the media in the campaign is set to be a success. The other factor used in segmentation by the campaign is the psychographic factor that includes social class, lifestyle, as well as personality. The campaign cuts across all social classes, as every person in the modern world could become obese if they adopt poor eating habits and become physically inactive. The campaign also targets individuals of every lifestyle. The campaign also targets individuals of all personalities, as the increase in exercise to reduce obesity should be embraced by every person. The other factor taken into consideration during the campaign when segmenting the target audience is the behavioral factor. This involves the occasions, benefits, usage status, usage rate, loyalty, as well as the attitude of the target audience. According to World Health Organization (2012), it is essential that discrimination on the basis of the behavior of obese people is done away with. This is attributed to the fact that the only way to reduce obesity is engagement in physical exercises and good eating habits. After the segmentation of the target audience, the stage of change during the campaign is scheduled to start with pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and finally termination.
Proposed Solution
According to Wen et al. (2010), in order to increase exercise to reduce obesity, which decreases the number of individuals succumbing to heart related diseases, individuals must sacrifice their precious time to engage in physical activities and exercises. Moreover, the society needs to come up with morals and cultural values that its members are obliged to stick to. For instance, people must embrace the culture of engaging in sports activities. Through this, physical inactivity that is prevalent among people worldwide will be eradicated.
References
Ewa, K. 2014. “Obesity crisis proves a weighty issue for Canberra Hospital”. The Canberra Times (Fairfax Media). Available online at: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/obesity-crisis-proves-a-weighty-issue-for-canberra-hospital-20140428-37ebm.html
Hector, D., King, L., Hardy, L., Alexis, S. G., Hebden, L., Espinel, P., & Rissel, C. (2012). Evidence Update On Obesity Prevention Across The Life-course. University of Sidney. Available online at: http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au//bitstream/2123/8762/1/Obesity%20Review_across%20life%20course.pdf
Wen, L. M., Baur, L. A., Simpson, J. M., & Rissel, C. 2010. Mothers’ awareness of their weight status and concern about their children being overweight: findings from first‐time mothers in south‐west Sydney. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 34(3), 293-297. Available online at: http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1753-6405.2010.00529.x
World Health Organization. 2012. Population-based approaches to childhood obesity prevention. Available online at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/80149/1/9789241504782_eng.pdf?ua=1
Zimmet, P. 2010. “The Cost of overweight and obesity in Australia”. Medical Journal of Australia 192 (5): 260.