Initial Discussion responses should be around 200 words. Responses to your classmates or instructor should be around 75 words. Please review the Discussion Board Grading Rubric for specific requirements.

Topic: Leading Health Indicators

The mission of Healthy People 2020 aims to identify national health improvement priorities. It also looks to increase public awareness and understanding of the causes of health, disease, and disability, and identify opportunities for improving health.

For your initial response, select one of the leading health indicators (LHI) associated with Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity located here:

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). Leading health indicators. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/Leading-Health-Indicators

Discuss at least one objective associated with the LHI. Why is working toward the objective important to public health? How do you think your own community is doing in working toward the objective?

Classmate Post #1

As adults we don't eat health and we haven't for along time. Our intake on vegetable and fruit is very low especially within our children, As a adult our intake is lower across the broad, however its our intake are high then our younger generation between the ages of 9-18. Adults don't attend to start ending vegetable and fruit until a health scare, such as a heart attack or a stroke. Our tend to eat what we eat, we can't blame childhood obesity on no one but us a parents. Because if we don't each them at a young age, their just repeat the cycle until they learn better. As a whole we have realize that we're having a higher number in obesity as well as childhood obesity and as a whole we are trying to make a difference. We trying to change the younger generation to eat health especially in schools. The school lunch menu has change big time since I was in school. I'm starting to see more health commercials along with health kids with superstars and football players. Free health screens, but in my eyes its still one problem within the black community no black male attend these events and females are scared of what they might find out about their selves. So its a lot of good this going on within the community and their something we can't touch at the moment. However in time I think things will change with educating our community on health issues.

Classmate Post #2

For this discussion, I chose the objective, “Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years who are considered obese,” under the obesity among children and adolescents LHI (NWS-10.4) I chose this topic because I feel that emphasizing the importance of proper nutrition at a young age can help deter obesity in children and adolescents . We’ve all heard the expression “old habits die hard” and majority of our bad habits start at a vulnerable age. If these habits aren’t corrected fast, they will likely become harder to break later on. In a time where watching T.V and playing video games seems more appealing than playing outside with friends, it is vital now more than ever that we take a collective interest in working toward this objective. According to Healthy People 2020, 16.1 percent of children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years were considered obese in 2005–08. That means 16.1 of children and adolescents aged 2-19 are at risk for early health problems such as joint pain, high blood pressure, difficulty breathing and type 2 diabetes. Some of these may seem minor, but others can bring lifelong consequences. Obese children and adolescents turn into obese adults who then have children of their own and fail to instill in them healthy eating habits. This failure can perpetuate the problem, creating a vicious cycle of potential genetically inherited health risks. My current community does offer an assortment of healthy, well balanced food options, however, I believe we could do a better job of advertising the importance of eating more fruits and vegetables. These days, it seems that people only care about macronutrients, forgetting that micronutrients are just as important. Our bodies need micronutrients to function as well as absorb macronutrients. Overall I feel that my community is taking steps in the right direction, which is great, but there is always room for improvement.