Statistics on health and the population: Obesity in children

Statistics on health and the population: Obesity in children
Population of interest
Childhood obesity is one of the biggest problems in the world for kids. Studies have shown that childhood is a big health loss for people between the ages of five and nineteen. The disease affects both men and women of all races and cultures. The health of an individual has a small effect on the body mass index. Studies showed that 340 million children and young people were obese in 2016, and the line has been going up and up over the years. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016).

How to look for

All of the libraries were used for research. From the MEDLINE full, PubMed Central, and Cochrane Collaboration libraries, several pieces of writing were put together. The search terms were: obesity in children, obesity in teens, overweight in early childhood, and obesity statistics. The literary works were put into groups based on the titles and text of the search terms. For the study, two papers were chosen from each library. In this case, a systematic study was used to gather all of the information. The pieces from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) were singled out and looked at closely because they had data on childhood obesity and how the health problem has changed over time.

Getting health information

Most young people eat foods that aren’t good for them and don’t do any workouts to make up for it, which raises their Body Mass Index (BMI). It has been found that bad eating habits are the most important cause of this health problem. There are more foods that are high in calories but low in nutrients available to children today. This kind of food makes the body store more fat, which leads to being overweight. It has been said that young people don’t do as much physical exercise. (World Health Organization,2016). So, the type of food the kids eat doesn’t match up with the amount of movement they do. Poor parenting has also been linked to fat because young people don’t get enough advice on how to eat well.

Obesity has a lot to do with genetics. People can get certain genes from their parents that make them more likely to be overweight. Studies show that genes are responsible for less than 5% of all cases. (Day at al,.2020). There may be some link between fat and the environment. In a certain area, families’ food choices and amounts are limited by how hard it is to get good groceries and food.

How to make sense of the results

Obesity is linked to how people take care of their health and the social factors that affect their health. Families with low socioeconomic level may make people less likely to seek health care and more likely to be overweight. People who are obese or overweight are more likely to get short-term and long-term life-threatening diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart problems.

Studies have shown that girls are more likely to have it than boys. This is because boys tend to be more physically active, which helps use up extra fat in the body.

Multicultural factors

Some cultural behaviors can affect obesity in a long-term way. Some groups insist on eating bad food because it is part of their culture. Also, because men and women do different things, some traditional practices make people more likely to be overweight. For example, some jobs can only be done by boys, while others can only be done by girls. This balances the amount of physical exercise against the amount of fat consumed. Children who go to school and don’t have easy access to good foods is another thing that could make them fat. (Rao, Kropac, Do, Roberts, & Jayaraman, 2016). In turn, being poor can make it hard for people to buy healthy foods. Because resources are limited, poverty also forces children to eat what is available, which goes against what the food pyramid says.

Programs that try to help

Health awareness projects in communities could help people learn more about obesity and how to stop it. This could include teaching parents about how to feed their children in a healthy way. Young people might react better to being overweight if they were told to avoid sugary foods and a bad diet. (Kumar, & Kelly, 2017, February). Children who are overweight should have a personal nutrition plan made by their teachers. So, the children could get the right food.

Using fats to get the body type people want could be helped a lot by getting young people involved in physical activity programs. This includes regularly taking part in sports, especially after school and during free time, and pushing young people to go to screenings for obesity so they can keep track of their weight gain or loss. Screening could make people more aware of their bodies so they can follow rules.

Reference

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Childhood obesity facts.

Day, S. E., D’Agostino, E. M., Huang, T. T. K., Larkin, M., Harr, L., & Konty, K. J. (2020). Continued Decline in Obesity and Severe Obesity Prevalence Among New York City Public School Youth in Grades K‐8: 2011‐2017. Obesity, 28(3), 638-646.

Rao, D. P., Kropac, E., Do, M. T., Roberts, K. C., & Jayaraman, G. C. (2016). Childhood overweight and obesity trends in Canada. Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada: research, policy and practice, 36(9), 194.

World Health Organization. (2016). Report of the commission on ending childhood obesity. World Health Organization

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