Work

A Novel Approach to Adolescent Obesity in Rural Appalachia of West Virginia: Educating Adolescents as Family Health Coaches and Research Investigators

Year: 2011

Type: book-chapter

Abstract: Topics in the Prevention, Treatment and Complications of Type 2 Diabetes 310 perception.(Patton, 1990) Our tenant is that evolutionary adaptation faced with cycles of feast and famine has led to multiple, often subtle biological mechanisms for energy conservation, that are strengthened by social cultural behaviors of nurturing, sharing and preparing for future fasts.With the 21 st c e n t u r y a d v a n c e s o f f o o d d i s t r i b u t i o n a n d refinement, the continuous availability of high energy foods and more sedentary lifestyles now render us maladapted to this new environment.We propose that this clash of perception is best addressed by enhancing learning skills in the community to consider each approach, and develop a new way forward.(Ausubel, 1962) Applying these learning skills to focus on a dialogue, between biological and cultural urges and knowledge of future risk, is required to create sustained changes in behavior that we know can work.From this prospective, success or failure of any obesity intervention in the long haul will be require to 'shift in cultures experience as the basis of reality' (referred to by the Zanders' quotation above) (Zander & Zander, 2002) as the essential ingredient for transformational change.We describe an innovative strategy to create such a transformational change by directly addressing this primary root cause.We provide an educational forum through familyoriented learning rather than health care teaching.This strategy is being tested in a rural Appalachian community in the US that is stable, but geographically and economically isolated.It is at the epicenter of the US epidemic, with some of the highest obesity rates yet recorded.(Pancoska et al., 2009) Within this community, the primary target chosen for intervention is the adolescent with a secondary beneficiary being the adolescents' family.The benefits for this concept extend beyond the question of obesity alone, and offer a transformational model for community self-help and self improvement.Our belief is that even though the infrastructure support for our new paradigm is substantial, it addresses the depth of sophistication needed to create sustained change.Elements of the program are generalizable and could be augmented by changes in local and national policies to improve for the interface between education and health care that could benefit affected communities.In this chapter, we described the evolution and goals of the CAIRN program for rural Appalachia, (Figure 1) and point out the role of some of the multiple key players involved.For any program of this level of sophistication, the individual development will be different, and the key players to influence development will vary in the resources and ideas they contribute; however, it will be the key players who will influence the details of what is developed.We suggest that the common critical elements are community willingness to actively participate, the extensive need for voluntary input from as varied a resource base as possible, the need for help from academia and building a multisource funding base for organization and infrastructure. The Setting: A community network of science clubs for adolescents in rural AppalachiaRural Appalachia, although one of the most scenically beautiful regions of the US with its extended mountain range, is also one of the poorest in the country.The only state entirely in Appalachia, West Virginia (WV), the Mountain State, was initially settled by a wave of Scottish-Irish early immigrants looking for homestead farming.Its later wave of African-American and Caucasian migration came with the railroads to work coal mines.Those who remained despite the later depression are the communities for this sparsely populated www.intechopen.com

Source: InTech eBooks

DOI: 10.5772/23872