In: Nursing
You land a job with the Health Department to assess your county’s obesity problem through intervention. Your employer wants you to hold community screenings that assess obesity values. You have 4 hours to screen as many people as possible. Name 2 measures that would be appropriate to use to assess obesity. Why did you choose these measures? Are they based on evidence and if so, explain what criteria/ cutpoints you are looking for? What are the pros for choosing these measures? What are the cons?
Please explain in most detail possible
Answer:
The two measures fot the assessment of obesity are
1. BMI
2. Waist circumference measurement
The reason for choosing these two assessment
- they are easy to follow
- very simple and can complete in less time
- inexpensive to use
- for BMI, they have already standerdized cut off points
- more co- relation with the body fat level
The given two assessment are base on the evidence.
The cut off point for the BMI assessment are
- less than 18.5 is underweight
- 18.5 to 24.9 is normal weight
- 25 to 29.9 is over weight
- if more than 30 is obesity
For the waist circumference, the cut off point are for male less than 90 cm and less than 80 cm for female are considered as normal. If it is more than the given values then it is considered as extra fat in the abdominal.
The pros of BMI
- standerdized cut off point present
- less time consuming
- standerdized formula can be used
- only weight and height have to check
- less expensive
The cons of BMI
- not able to distinguish between the body fat and the body mass
- cannot able to use in children less than 5 years
The pros of using waist circumference measurement
- easy to perform
- less time consuming
- inexpensive
- corelated with the body fats in the adult
Cons of using waist circumference measurement
- not standerdized measurement procedure
- there is always need to depend on BMI to find out the accurate obesity.