Description
Explanation & Answer
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Community Health Plan: Belleville, New Jersey
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Community Health Plan: Belleville, New Jersey
Introduction
The United States citizens face multiple healthcare challenges as reflected in their
healthcare needs and healthcare system utilization. In addition, the Belleville, New Jersey
community also faces many wellbeing issues that adversely affect their health profile. These
include substance abuse, cancer, diabetes, and mental disorders. However, arguably the most
critical need of this community is overweight and obesity. The World Health Organization
(2016) defines being overweight as having a BMI of more than 25 and obesity as a BMI of more
than 30. Fruh (2017) points out that this is not a localized challenge within Belleville, New
Jersey but is a national and international issue, affecting hundreds of thousands every year. He
points out that all US states have an obesity prevalence of more than 20%, while half of the
states (N=20) have a prevalence of 30%.
The greatest challenge to obesity and overweight is that more people join the affected
groups. The local and national obesity rates have increased steadily over the past decade. The
New Jersey States Health Assessment Data (NJSHA) (2017) points out that the obesity rates in
the state increased by more than four percentage points in the six years between 2011 (23.8%)
and 2017 (27.7%). Given that the state has a target of 23.8%, this data indicates a significant
underperformance at the expense of the citizens. Another critical challenge associated with
obesity is the increasing number of children who are overweight and obese. The number of
children below 12 years with obesity has indicated an upwards trend for nearly two decades.
More than 17% of US children are obese (Sanyaolu et al., 2019; Fruh, 2017). Indeed, there is a
glaring challenge to tackle the overweight and obesity challenge both locally and nationally.
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More needs to be done to address this issue in community-based interventions to develop
healthier communities.
Befittingly, the US government has recognized the challenge of obesity in most US states
and...
