Needs Assessment - Week 4- Health need assessment definition: • A systematic process of identifying priority health issues, targeting the population with most need and taking action in the most effective and efficient way. Understanding health needs: • Health needs are the things that give us control over the factors that influence our health. • Example: the needs related to eating a healthy diet might include: • Knowledge about different foods and their nutritional value • Access to fresh fruits and vegetables Need Assessment: a stepwise process.. Tittle • Involvement of parents in childhood obesity in UAE Description • Defining obesity as per WHO, state the Symptoms of obesity: sweating, low energy, being overweight, etc… • Behavior that leads to obesity like excessive unhealthy eating and drinking, lack of exercise, etc.. • Status of increasing obesity worldwide • Status of increasing obesity in UAE • Factors that have helped rising rates of obesity in UAE: weather leading people to be indoors, ease of service food delivery using apps, affordability of unhealthy meals (burger, fries and soft drinks start at 14aed). • Aim/purpose: prevention is better than cure. Saving the future generation from obesity by preventing obesity among kids today…Therefore parents needs to understand the risks of not taking action early on. With awareness about the issue parents will be wellinformed to take an action and prevent a future generation that is obese. Profiling • Obesity in children between 5 and 12 years old including south-east Asians and UAE nationals. • They are usually primary to high school children • Income does not play an important role because food is affordable to all in UAE. • Population have a lifestyle that is quite sedentary • Parents tend to encourage children to stay in air conditions rather than encouraging outdoor play • Being overweigh in the Arab region can be seen socially as sign of beauty and fertility for Women and a sign of wealth for men. Prioritizing • I would choose the HBM as its known to be one of the theories used when it comes to prevention of health problems. Knowing that my aim is to prevent obesity from increasing among children. • My questionnaire will be given to parents of obese kids in order to grasp their attention about the obesity and the choices they have made that allowed their kids to reach to that point. • Perceived susceptibility: I would ask “do you think your child is healthy for his age? To get them to think about the health status of their child and whether or not they feel the behavior (unhealthy eating and lack of activities) should change. Evaluation • Within 6 month post the release of my PSA I would expect parents to have enrolled their children in clubs that have physical activities • I also expect an increase of 15-20% in children who carry to schools healthier meals such as fruits/vegetables. • I would expect 50% of parents of these children to become aware of the benefits of what constitutes a healthy meal. Week 4 The Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) Developed by Fishbein, 2000 • Belief (I will not die) → Intention (go fast)→ Behavior (exceed speed limit) The Integrated Behavioral Model ▪ C o n n e ct Beliefs to Intention to Behavior ▪ Intention to act is the best predictor of behavior ▪ The utility of the theory is in REVEALING the Beliefs that are most closely connected to behavioral Intention ▪ Once those target beliefs are identified, the next step is to select those beliefs that can be modified through persuasive messages (Intervention). What makes the intention? ▪ The personal beliefs [Attitude] ▪ B e l i e fs about social pressure or what others think or do [Perceived Norms] ▪ B e l i e fs about the amount of personal and environmental control one has over the behavior [Personal Agency] The Integrated Behavioral Model Attitude Experimental Attitude Knowledge & skills to perform the behavior Salience of the behavior Instrumental Attitude Perceived Norm Injunctive Norm Descriptive Norm Intention to perform the behavior Personal Agency Perceived Control Self-efficacy Environment al constraints Habit Behavior What makes the behavior? • This theory focuses on motivation/intention. • Behavior is more likely to change when: • The person has the intention (pregnant woman intent to lower her stress during pregnancy) to change and has knowledge and skill to do that (she might not know how to do that) • There are no major environmental obstacles (if its raining how can one exercise?) • The behavior is salient (prominence) – (her intention will make her more stressed) • The person performed the behavior before (Habit) – (it’s hard to get into exercising routine) The Integrated Behavioral Model • Experimental Attitude: the degree the person believes that the behavior in question is “pleasant” or “unpleasant” (related to feelings & emotions) • Instrumental Attitude: is related to beliefs about the outcome of a certain behavior (related to cognitive beliefs) Attitude ▪ It is the individual positive or negative evaluation of doing the behavior ▪ S u c h evaluation is a combination of beliefs that are based on feelings/experiences or information (instrumental) Examples: • E x e r c i s i n g regularly helps me stay fit is: • Instrumental OR Experimental ? • I find exercising very boring. • Experimental OR Instrumental? • I hate to sweat. • Experimental OR Instrumental? The Integrated Behavioral Model • Injunctive norm: is related to normative beliefs about: what I think others think I should do. There is a tendency to comply. • Descriptive norm: refers to what I perceive others do (people from the same social circle who matter to me) Perceived Norms It is the person’s beliefs that individuals that are important in his or her life (peer pressure) approve or disapprove him/her carrying a certain behavior; and what they are doing about it. Refers to the social pressure one feels to perform or not perform a particular behavior Examples: ▪ M o st people who I care for want me to exercise. Injunctive OR Descriptive? ▪ ▪ M y friends think that I Definitely Should OR Definitely should not exercise Injunctive OR Descriptive? ▪ M o st of the people in my community exercise regularly Descriptive OR Injunctive ? Personal Agency Self-efficacy (Able): The individual’s degree of confidence that s/he can carry out the behavior (self-ability) Perceived control is an individual's perception of the degree to which factors in the environment make it easy or difficult to perform a behavior (environmental barrier) Personal Agency This is about the individual’s beliefs about the degree to which s/he has CONTROL OVER the behavior and is ABLE to do so. Examples: ▪ ▪ I do not have the stamina to exercise ▪ I have the stamina to exercise regularly. ▪ Self-Efficacy or Perceived Control? ▪ Exercising is very difficult or very easy because of my usual daily schedule. ▪ Self-Efficacy or Perceived Control? Example • Attitude: • I can save the environment by making simple changes in my daily life OR I cannot protect the environment • Perceived Norms: • My friends use eco-friendly products • Personal Agency: • Replacing plastic bags with reusable ones is difficult as I keep forgetting to carry my reusable bag when I go for shopping General Rule • The most favorable the ATTITUDE (+) and the PERCIEVED NORMS (+) and the greater THE PERSONAL AGENCY (+), the stronger should be the person’s INTENTION to perform the BEHAVIOR Questions to Ask in Qualitative Research • How do you feel about behavior X? • What do you like/dislike or enjoy/hate about behavior X? • Do you think doing behavior X is beneficial? • What do your family & friends think about behavior X? • Who would support you doing behavior X? • What things makes it easy or hard for you to do behavior X? • How certain are you that you can do behavior X? Student Name: Teacher: Course & Section: Date: Title of Assignment: Needs Assessment: Ignoring Autism 1. Description of the specific behavior or belief Autism is a social, as well as, a brain disorder its signs can start showing at an early age when the child is one year old and even at infancy. However, most children are officially diagnosed with autism after the age of three, that of course depends on the parent’s willingness to have their child diagnosed (Ives and Munro 53). Autism cases have increased worldwide and since the Middle East only recently have been paying more attention to this disorder, parents have failed to predict that their child is autistic, so their child is diagnosed at a late stage which results in the waste of time and many opportunities for the autistic child to be given the care s/he needs in order to help the child deal with the problem at an early age. Supporting this is Martine Ives and Nell Munro’s statement that: “Early intervention prevents the child falling further behind developmental goals and reduces the time the parents need to struggle without professional help” (55). Thus, this causes autistic children to fall behind when it comes to improving their social abilities and minimize the disorder. The number of Autism cases are evidently increasing worldwide, In the Gulf region as well, since statistics aren’t as accurate in this region because many children are still not officially diagnosed with autism, numbers will defiantly be higher than this but according to Al Arabiya “One in 160 children are diagnosed with autism in Saudi Arabia alone” (Nasr #). Overall, I want to address autism but more specially bring light to late diagnosis or even no diagnosis at all that autistic children receive because their parents tend to ignore signs that their child might have autism, for many reason some such as they don’t take the matter seriously, fear of accepting the possibility that their child is sick, and other reasons that I still want to explore. 2. Profile The audience that I’m targeting are parents from the Gulf region of children from ages (1-15) and specifically the parents who might suspect some abnormal behavior in their children, but for some reason choose to ignore it because they don’t take it seriously or they don’t have answers to their suspicions and for any reason that makes them not seek to take action. Also, the parents who might interpret their children’s behavior according to their cultural superstition or religious matter, while completely disregarding Medical intervention. For instance, they explain their child’s odd behavior not because he or she might be sick, but they think that they’ve suffered from the ‘Evil eye’, ‘ black magic’ and other things that is often perceived in their society (Costandi). In addition, when I think of this specific audience of parents income and education doesn’t come in mind, even though it seems that the target must be highly educated if they belief in ideas such as “evil eye” over medical help, but in this region these ideas are common and can be found despite social class and doesn’t depend on literacy. Another reason I don’t want to narrow the parents characteristics is that “Parents are extremely good judges of their children. Mums and dads worried by their child development usually have good cause for concern. This is the finding regardless of the family’s education, income or previous parenting experience.” (Ives and Munro 52). 3. Prioritization The theory that I think I would go with and is most relevant and will help me most is the Transtheoretical Model, because most people are not ready to take action or accept change and each is influenced to make change in a different way which applies to my target audience, whom are parents that have their suspicions about their children’s abnormal behavior but are for some reason not willing to question it and this is what I want to explore. Also, In order to get a better idea of what will make those parent’s more willing to make change and know why they are hesitant; I’ll be conducting focus group discussion, survey, or interviews. I’d also want to ask question to test their awareness and knowledge on behaviors that are linked to autism, to see where they stand in this matter in general. I preferably want to ask questions to parents who have young children and know what their responses would be if their children showing peculiar behaviors or parents who already have autistic children, no matter what their son or daughter’s age is, to know their experience on whether their child had an early or late diagnoses and their responses to their chidren’s abnormal behavior. However, I’ll also put in mind that if I wasn’t able to reach many parents to question, I’ll ask other people who might have siblings, relatives, or anyone they know who have autism or I’ll ask them as if they’re in the parents shoes so I’d want to see how they react as future parents. The following are the questions I have in mind. Some of them I intend to only ask to parents with autistic children and some apply to all. - Imagine that your child doesn’t make much eye contact, is very sensitive to noise, lacks social skills, dislike being hugged, does inappropriate gestures and is prone to suffer from unusual tantrums. If you encounter the following behaviors in your child what would you do? Does it make you (uneasy, alarmed, or will you think it’s just a phase that might pass)? If you’re uneasy about it will you seek medical interventions or voice it out or traditional ideas affect your decision? What would lead you to take? - To autistic parents: How old was your child when he or she was diagnosed with autism? Did you start noticing abnormal behavior in your child or someone else pointed out to you? when first you started to take notice that your child is behaving in a weird manner, what thoughts first came to you? When it became a concern did you voice this to anyone and what are their responses? What led you to seek medical interventions? Was your son or daughter diagnosed with an autism straightaway or you were given a different diagnosis at first? 4. Evaluation Overall, I expect to see that parents would be more aware of some behaviors and characteristics that relates with Autism. I also expect it to correct any false information they had before they watched the PSA, which would be in the survey process, because I intend to ask them general knowledge questions on this, so that after watching the PSA It’ll add to their awareness and knowledge and they’ll know which information they got right or wrong. I also want other audiences to be aware as well, because they might be able to point this out to parents they know, since many parents aren’t motivated to make change unless someone else points it out to them. When it comes to awareness to autistic behaviors, I expect it to happen right after they watch the PSA. However, when it comes to the parents accepting the idea their child might have autism and taking action, I think this might take time, because it depends on the parents willingness and people’s will power’s and ideologies are hard to change so soon. So I won’t expect a sudden change, but I do think that it will move them from being pre-contemplators to contemplators, so I would expect willingness for gradual change such as in a year or so. Moreover, since I’d use Social media as my medium to broadcast the PSA and I intend to have an online community earlier, I’d evaluate and measure the success or failure of the PSA by looking the number of comments along with its content, views and rating on Youtube, as well as, the number of re-tweets, mentions, posts, shares, likes and most importantly the amount and type of feedback that I get from the online community through Twitter and Facebook. Works Cited Costandi, Moheb. “ Turning tides of autism.” NatureMiddle East, Nature Publishing. Group, 2 Nov 2011. Web. 8 Feb 2012.
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