Let’s discuss: Childhood Obesity.
Welcome back! You are here at the right time as this week I am going to begin tackling what many applying medics are thinking about… interviews. If you want to smash your medical current affairs section you need to have done some wider reading! Check out my blog posts to find out how!
If you want to get practical help through interactive blog posts, learn to smash every MMI station and blow the panel away. Don’t go anywhere
Don’t miss out on top tips, and strategy that will earn you your medical school place:
Interviews are a crucial part of the application journey and are often overlooked by students.
That said, if you are at an interview, they already like you! You just need to prove to them what they already think of you.
Today I am going to take you through how to reason a current affairs question. Some blogs will just give you an argument to read, but I think that this will be even better.
Today we are going to:
- Learn to build a really strong argument around medical current affairs
- Learn to structure medical affairs arguments
- Gain some info you can use for any questions on Childhood obesity.
Is the government doing enough to tackle childhood obesity?
Medical current affairs: Step No.1 – take a minute
This will be the same for every blog post I write about interviews.
You should first take a second to compose your thoughts and understand the question. Nothing is more embarrassing than confidently answering a question that the interviewer actually didn’t ask!
Thinking points:
- Why is it a problem?
- What is already being done about it?
- Things that went well
- What could go better
- What is my opinion?
Areas of health it links to:
Mental health- social health
Postcode lottery
Dietary health: eating disorders, free school meals.
Community measures
Comorbidities- the quality of life and care for all.
Once you have thought of some key phrases or points for each section. It’s time to start talking.
Medical current affairs: Step 2 – give the overview
This is important to show the interviewer your breadth of knowledge and understanding of the topic.
Next, Briefly brush over the point you made above. This way, if you run out of time, you haven’t funnelled all your response into one small section of the issue.
Example :
- Why is it a problem
“ Childhood obesity is an enormous issue in the UK. Latest figures suggest that ⅕ of 10-11-year-olds in the UK are obese. This presents a range of issues for children at the moment such as the development of type 2 diabetes, and psycho-social issues such as insecurity and bullying.
It also increases the likelihood that obese children will grow up to become obese adults, where even more health issues come into play such as heart disease and stroke.”
- What is already being done about it
The government and NHS have recognised this as an issue, and have implemented a number of preventative and managerial strategies. Mainly included in their” childhood obesity: a plan for action.”
For example, in 2016 the government introduced the sugar tax, this is a development on previous measures such as the 2008 healthy weight, healthy lives plan which lead to the development of ‘ change for life- sugar swaps’ initiative.
In 2020 the government introduced further measures, as links between obesity and increased COVID risk were drawn.
- Ban buy one get one free deals on unhealthy food
- Restrict junk-food advertising
- Calorie labelling in restaurants.
Step No.3 – What has gone well?
Here is where you scrutinise the things you have said above, pick out good parts of the plan and do your best to link to other areas of health you thought about in step 1.
“The dept of health and social care has done a good job with increasing exercise programmes in school and cutting down sugar within the drinks for sale. This means people can still enjoy elements of the same lifestyle but in a healthier way. Making exercise fun could encourage children to be more involved with sport and activity, this will have a great impact on children’s mental health too.”
My thinking: I don’t have much to say for this part, but it is still important I touch upon it, don’t worry and move on to parts you can say lots about.
Step No.4 – What could go better?
Examples:” there has been a link drawn with childhood obesity being highest in the most deprived areas, with high populations of BAME communities. This has been known about for a number of years now, yet it seems that not much is being done to take this factor into account. This is according to the National Audit Office.
For example, we know that there is a link with more deprived areas being more at risk of COVID-19, and also having higher rates of Obesity. However, I think the government has taken obesity and COVID in a causal manner rather than looking at the correlation to depravity.
This means that many measures such as restricting junk food adverts and labelling in restaurants will possibly not have a huge impact.
The government has failed to learn from past mistakes, and measures such as labelling food with calories are very worrying from the perspective of protecting those with disordered eating.
Many of the poorest families live in food deserts. When the government decided not to fund school meals through half term, I can imagine the impact this may have on families who simply do not have access to nutritious and affordable food for their children.”
Medical current affairs: Step No.5 -What do I think:
Give a summary of your opinion overall ( use the question again), maybe talk about what you would do if the power was in your hands!
So in answer to the question, yes I believe the government is trying to do more to tackle childhood obesity. However, I feel that it is not targeted or directed in the right way, and I fear that many government strategies are unorganised and are not using learning from past failures.
If I had the power, I would ensure that more is done to tackle the root of obesity, such as poverty and mental health issues, pouring more funding into community-based strategies to tackle these.
I would also coordinate with other departments on factors such as sponsorship of sporting events by the food industry, to try and reduce the subconscious fueling of the nation’s love for unhealthy foods.
Et Voilà!
So that is how I would attempt to answer medical current affairs questions like this, but here are a few things to bear in mind:
- You probably won’t get long enough to reel all of this off so be selective
- There is a fine line between a planned and prepared answer and sounding scripted. Don’t just rope learn answers word for word.
- This structure is helpful for me but doesn’t work for everyone, use it, twist it, bop it, pull it. Do whatever you like with it and make it yours!
So to wrap up:
I hope this has been really useful! I have plenty more interview preparation stuff coming soon so do join the email list so you don’t miss anything.
Follow me on Instagram for a project I am revealing soon!
Have a lovely week!
-Zoe xx