Assessment task: Planning, implementation and evaluation of a non-communicable disease prevention initiative

This assignment uses a suburban state primary school as a setting for the prevention of overweight and obesity. The task involves an extensive whole-of-school initiative that targets specific stakeholder groups usually associated with a school (pupils, teachers, families, community). Students will work as Public Health Officers working for the state Department of Health on the planning, implementation and evaluation of this intervention.

Students will identify how this new initiative will be deployed, what resources, support and incentives will be required and what concerns and/or barriers the initiative may encounter. Students will also develop information for the stakeholder groups and other communication strategies, and outline an evaluation strategy. Importantly, a direct link between the intervention design and risk reduction in the target group must be demonstrated.

Submission will comprise the following (approximate distributions of word count):

• Demographic characteristics of the specific school and surrounding community (600 words)
• Etiology and epidemiology of overweight and obesity in the target group (700 words)
• Justification of stakeholder group selection (200 words)
• Description of the intervention (700 words)
• Outline of the communication strategy (300 words)