The Health Promotion of Early Childhood for a Healthy Weight-to-height Ratio in Era of Thailand 4.0 by Using PPCT Model

Abstract

Children are valuable human resources-as the significant mechanism for the national development. Hence, the future of a nation tends to depend on the quality of its children, especially the early-childhood children who need to be well-developed concerning their physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and ethical dimensions. Furthermore, early childhood is considered the most critical period for developing significantly multidimensional growth. Therefore, nurses seem to play a crucial role in promoting the health of early childhood children leading to a healthy weight-to-height ratio and suitable age-based development. Nevertheless, the survey has revealed that only 49.5% of early childhood children in Thailand maintained a healthy weight-to-height ratio, and one out of ten suffered from stunting and obesity. This reflected that nutritional problems became one of the problems for children of this age range. Furthermore, to solve this problem, the Ministry of Health included the issue in the national strategic plan. The key indicators on potential development and capacity building for early childhood children were formulated within the human resources development model; known as Thailand 4.0. To further elaborate, this model was designed to establish mutual collaboration among all social units interacting with children to reach the solutions. The concept of Thailand 4.0 was also consistent with the PPCT Model, which was developed to enhance individual potentials towards creating desired outcomes or adopting positive behaviors that could alleviate health problems and establish sustainable health promotion.