Introduction
Childhood obesity remains one of the critical health concerns in the U.S. and on a global scale. The disorder defines further health concerns in children as they develop, causing multiple complications and the development of health concerns, including diabetes, in the future (Arthurs et al., 2022). It is believed that m-Helath tools will allow children to acquire greater responsibility due to understanding the threat and increased control over their dieting. This study aims to explore the extent to which m-Health tools contribute to developing children’s understanding of nutrition and shaping their choices. The study aims to answer the PICOT Question: In children (8-14 y.o.) with obesity, how does the use of m-Health applications for controlling their dieting choices compare to the supervision of their parents affect children’s understanding of proper dieting and acceptance of the proposed dieting options for obesity treatment within three months?
Background of Studies
The problem is childhood obesity represents a significant health issue for multiple reasons, including not only immediate health concerns but also future implications (Arthurs et al., 2022). The objective of Arthurs et al. (2022) study is to the effects of utilizing m-Helath-based tools in identifying their digital patterns and behaviors. The significance of their study to nursing is underlines in the fact that the article informs a nursing expert on the issue of opportunities for improved patient education by increasing young patients’ health literacy by offering them increased control over their dieting options and providing them with accurate and understandable implications thereof. The research question Arthurs et al. (2022) is whether contemporary m-Health tools provide a decent framework for treating childhood obesity. The article’s primary purpose is to offer a comprehensive summary of the efficacy and usability of tools and strategies that m-Health provides for treating and preventing pediatric obesity.
Early childhood interventions that set up healthy growth trajectories can potentially have a long-term positive impact on health and happiness. For this reason, the main problem of Rose et al. (2019) article is the prevention of childhood obesity as a public health priority. The significance of their study to nursing is that the approach outlined in the article enables health professionals to identify infants at increased risk of future overweight and to target prevention to vulnerable families.
The objective of Rose et al. (2019) article is to understand if ProAsk affects the problem by explaining to parents the risks of obesity and causes behavior change. The research is about what key themes can be observed in the narratives of parents using the ProAsk tool to minimize the threat of future obesity in their infants. The purpose of the article in question concerns identifying the risk of developing obesity in infants with the help of an innovative m-Health tool. Specifically, the role of the ProAsk m-Health tool is examined in the course of the study.
Supporting the Nursing Practice Problem in articles
Discussing the usefulness of m-Health tools in managing pediatric obesity, the article by Arthurs et al. (2022) is linked directly to the topic at hand. The article focuses on the actual implications of using m-Helath tools as a measure for introducing an immediate change into the management of obesity in children (Arthurs et al., 2022).
Another study addressing the issue at hand, the study by Rose et al. (2019), should also be considered an essential contribution to the present research regarding the development of health literacy and behavior changes in children with obesity by using m-Health tools. Specifically, the article by Rose et al. (2019) examines the outcomes of applying an m-Health-based intervention on the prevention of risks in infant children. Although the specified study has a tenuous connection to the target demographic, with parents being the key focus of patient education, the research still examines the related issues.
The interventions in the articles correspond to those identified in the PICOT question of this paper. They reveal the impact of m-Health on childhood obesity. The comparison groups in the articles correspond to those identified in the PICOT question of this paper as well. Arthurs et al. (2022) consider in their article a group of children that use mobile health applications, while Rose et al. (2019) focus on the role of parents in the fight against childhood obesity.
Method of Studies
Rose et al. (2019) recruited sixty-six parents to the ProAsk feasibility study when their infant was 6–8 weeks old. This method has benefits – the interview sample comprised families from the most and the minor income-deprived areas of England. Such a sample of parents provided balance to the dataset with regard to the infant overweight risk variable. On the other hand, the limitation of this method is the small sample size.
Arthurs et al. (2022) conducted their study using another methodology. A literature review was conducted after implementing a systematic search to capture the breadth of published work and synthesize study characteristics, including methods used and findings. Two independent reviewers conducted title, abstract, and full-text screening for increased validity. The benefit of this method is that it gives a much wider field of data for research. Thus, it is challenging to adequately interpret the effectiveness of m-Health interventions across reviews because of different study designs, objectives, and settings (Ross & Bibler, 2019).
Results of Studies
The outcomes of the analysis provided by Arthurs et al. (2022) indicate that the integration of m-Health tools positively affects managing childhood obesity and treating it accordingly. The research suggests that the tool allows for measuring changes in the child’s well-being, including differences in the extent of weight gain, accurately, therefore, allowing for the further management of obesity as a health threat. The research outcomes are massively crucial for the current paper as they confirm the initial assumption about the impact of mobile health apps on addressing childhood obesity.
Rose et al. (2019) establish that the proposed intervention has significant positive results. The outcomes of the analysis prove that using the ProAsk app leads to notable changes in the awareness and involvement of parents in the problem of childhood obesity. The research outcomes are essential for this work because they have proven that m-Health intervention actively engages parents, enabling them to take ownership of the process of seeking strategies to reduce infant risk of being overweight. This is in line with the intended initial solutions to the problem raised by this work.
Ethical Considerations
When gathering data from people, scientists and researchers must always abide by ethical principles. Rose et al. (2019) collected new data from human participants. Therefore, ethical clearance is considered necessary. East of England (Essex) NHS Research Ethics Committee provided permission to conduct the study. Written informed consent was obtained for all participants and confirmed verbally before the interviews were conducted. Arthurs et al. (2022) article synthesizes previous research results and does not involve any new data collection from human participants. Therefore, ethical clearance is not considered necessary.
Conclusion
The analysis of the articles showed that mobile technologies provide an opportunity to help alleviate childhood obesity. Analysis of articles showed a tendency that children with obesity who use m-Health applications for controlling their dieting choices better accept proposed dieting options for obesity treatment. Additionally, parents’ awareness about the consequences of obesity when using the ProAsk has increased markedly. In the future, this may lead to changes in such an essential problem as obesity. However, this fact cannot be stated unambiguously since the number of studies is not yet sufficient to accurately state this fact.
References
Arthurs, N., Tully, L., O’Malley, G., & Browne, S. (2022). Usability and engagement testing of m-Health apps in pediatric obesity: A narrative review of current literature.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1453-1465.
Rose, J., Glazebrook, C., Wharrad, H., Siriwardena, A. N., Swift, J. A., Nathan, D., Weng, S. F., Atkinson, P., Ablewhite, J., McMaster, F., Watson, V., & Redsell, S. A. (2019). Proactive Assessment of Obesity Risk during Infancy (ProAsk): A qualitative study of parents and professionals’ perspectives on an m-Health intervention.BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-10.
Ross, P. T., & Bibler Zaidi, N. L. (2019). Limited by our limitations. Perspectives on medical education, 8(4), 261-264.