Effects of Fast Food on Body Mass Index Level in Adolescents and Students - Research Paper Example

Effects of Fast Food on BMI Level in Adolescents and Students 1.0 Background Increased consumption of fast foods has been linked with the salient increase of BMI, and overweight among youths in many societies. Increased BMIs have only served to indicate the soaring rates of obesity and overweight development. The use of BMI in the determination of the health of an individual has been in use for a long time. In the past, lower rates of high BMIs in children and adolescents indicated that societies lied in anticipation for healthy adults. In the modern day, such trends have taken turns. Today, many children and young people have remarkably high body mass indices, a factor that indicates they are prone to being overweight and later obese. The increasing rates of overweight and obesity cases are he onset of obesity increases the percentage risk of acquiring asthma, heart disease, certain cancers, and type-two diabetes. It mainly encompasses the excessive intake of foods with high energies and the lack of exercising to burn up the excess energy acquired. In this regard, obesity is treatable through proper dieting and regular exercising. Many fast foods have been categorized as containing high sugar content. Intake of sugary foods and those with high starch content, need avoiding in maintaining the average body weight. They have been described as key contributors to the development of obesity. Due to the rising rates of teenage obesity, legislators move on reviewing several policy interferences to turn around this route and fast food levies include such tools. Teenagers make important food buys of their own and fast food usage is well inside the monetary reach of several youths even if not bought for them straight through their parents. The increasing consumption of fast foods is becoming one of the critical public health concerns in the modern society. Moreover, youths on their own are not likely to know the nutritional and wellbeing effects of their food selections, and they can have great percentages of time predilection (Moreno Aznar, Pigeot & Ahrens 2011, p. 204). Adolescence is a significant evolution era as food usage blueprints start to exert long-term effects and youth obesity itself trails into maturity. Several cross-sectional researches and a single longitudinal random implications research have discovered statistically important negative relationships between fast food consumption and teenager’s BMI and/ or obese prevalence proposing that fast foods need to be limited in the diet if body mass indices are to be reduced. As long as the can be an efficient instrument for overcoming extreme fast food usage and associated obesity (Sassi 2010, p. 187). Applying cross-sectional approximation techniques, this research as well will discover that youth BMI is sensitive to a high consumption of fast food. Reporting for unnoticed personal level heterogeneity, the approximations showed that reforms in parental revenue have a salient zero influence on reforms in youth weight. Likewise, the constant effects approximations did not show any important impacts of staying in a single against a pair parent household. This research did not discover an optimistic association between mother’s hours of job and teen’s BMI (Moreno Aznar, Pigeot & Ahrens 2011, p. 201). It emerged that fast food consumption trends were remarkably high in this setting. This research applies four waves (1997 all the way to 2000) of the NLSY97 where interviewees were in the bracket of 12 to 17 years of age during 1997.This research is restrained to teenagers who stay at abode. From parental data, information on parental revenue was accounted through parents in the total four gestures, and is acquired from the 1997 parent survey and the 1998 to 2000 family revenue update survey. Information on the mother’s learning and job condition is acquired from the 1997 parent survey and in successive decades was accounted for all teens in the yearly family roster information. On the grounds of the non-missing information, the approximation sample constitutes 11, 900 individual decade surveillances on an unstable board of 5215 people staying in 392 diverse nations all over the U.K (Ditmier 2006). The major result gauge in this research is BMI. BMI is computed, founded on the personal accounted for anthropometric data accessible in the NLSY97 study. BMI is computed like similar to mass (kilogram) /height (meter) squared (Dunn 2008). Teenagers were grouped as obese when BMI ≥ age, gender, particularly 95th percentile founded on the CDC development graph. Personal and family echelon control features constitute race, age, sex, teenage revenue (which constitutes earned revenue and grant from blood relations), and household arrangement (teen adult stays with one parent against both parents). Moreover, teens yearly hours of the job, parental revenue, mother learning (less than secondary, secondary, some college and further), mother’s job condition (not doing the job, doing job part time, doing jobs full time) and countryside, suburban and city pointers (Wendt & Todd 2011). This serves to highlight that multiple factors contribute to the increasing rates of fast food consumption. Moreover, the most regularly witnessed food item advertisements by youths at the age of 12 to 17 are fast food. Consumers union claims that about 160 magazines target children in the present business environment providing companies with opportunities to sell directly to children. Currently, there are a lot of websites enticing teenagers and children to purchase goods and services. With children and teenagers spending more time viewing television and on the internet, they gain exposure to these adverts on a daily basis. Increased exposure to adverts increases the effects of these adverts in the attitudes and preferences of children and teenagers. Food companies have dominated the advertisement industry for some time. In the recent past, food adverts have increased in the television, multiple internet pages, and other forms of media. Consequently, children and teenagers have exposure to food adverts for several hours each day. This explains why the increasing trends of fast food consumption, increasing the body mass indices. Research reveals that there is an evident connection between food adverts and high consumption rates of fast foods. Research into the effects of excessive exposure of food adverts in the media reveals that the adverts have proven potential of influencing the eating habits of children and teenagers. The adverts effectively persuade children and teenagers to consider trying out the foods advertised. However, the successful persuasion leads to detrimental effects in children and teenagers. 2.0 Introduction Fast food denotes types of foods that require an easy and standardized preparation method, and are afterwards subject to dispense for consumption at the place of preparation, or sometimes bought and consumed elsewhere. Examples of fast foods include hamburgers, pizzas, and fried chicken. High BMI rates among adolescents have tripled in the past few years. Recent approximations demonstrate that 17.6% of U.K youths aged between 12 to 19 years are obese. Along with the increasing overweight epidemic, research information on food intake cycle and family spending indicate a marked up pattern in the whole energy consumption acquired from dwelling sources, specifically fast food restaurants. Youths eat the highest percentage of calories far from abode at quick service outlets. On top of affecting household food acquisitions, they represent a significant customer market since they are much more probable that adolescents to be straight customers. U.K youths are approximated to have used $159 billion during 2005. 3.0 Aim of the research With the increasing concern on the rising cases of obesity in different regions, and the associated connection between the increased BMI and development of health complications, this research seeks to ascertain that a correlation between fast food consumption and increased BMI does exist. The increasing consumption of fast foods especially among children, the youth, and young adults is a possible explanation for the increased BMI indicated by these groups. Therefore, this research will seek to obtain data that can support the existing idea that consumption of fast foods leads top increased BMI. 4.0 Hypothesis Childhood overweight and obesity cases are key public health matters and are currently getting a great deal of keenness because of its wider economic effects and extended impacts on teen’s general health, academic achievements, quality of living, and productivity as they turn to mature people. Luckily, the major current statistics show that increase in the percentage of teens grouped as obese has eventually levelled off. Nevertheless, the proportions of obese and children with high body mass remain elevated. This condition is directly associated with the increase in fast food restaurants from home which are easily accessible and cost effective for children to afford even when their parents do not directly purchase the products for them. Hence, something needs to be done to curb the situation before it gets out of hand. Many researchers have studied the relationships between fast food intake, energy, nutrient consumption, and body mass results. Fast food intake has been related to greater total energy consumption and greater consumption of fat, carbohydrates, carbonated soft drinks, sugar, saturated fat and lesser consumption of micronutrients and vegetables and fruits. In addition, researchers have discovered important relationships between fast food intake and raised BMI, raised body mass, and a greater likelihood of being obese. Previous researchers have identified a correlation between fast foods and increasing body mass index. This research study will seek to determine the association between teenager BMI, and fast food consumption. Data obtained from this research will serve to determine the correlation between a high BMI and a high rate of fast food consumption. If children and students who reveal that they are frequent consumers of fast foods present a high MBI, then it will be evident that a positive correlation between the two factors exists. 6.0 Method The design for this research will be a cross-sectional study that will focus on measuring the BMI of adolescents from different regions after analysing their intake of fast food. This will seek to identify any correlation between fast foods and increasing BMIs in adolescence. The initial step will be the selection of eligible participants. Ten schools from different cities will be selected for the study after consent from the school heads. The adolescents to participate in this study will be selected from these schools. Prior to the research, questionnaires and consent forms will be sent to parents of adolescents selected for the study to offer their consent. This will mean that after parents give their consents their children will be eligible participants in the study. The questionnaire will have different questions that will seek to establish the dietary preferences of the adolescent in the previous three years. Specifically, the questionnaires will target to highlight whether fast foods have any positive correlation with body mass index. After successfully filling in of the questionnaires, the research will continue to the second phases that will determine the body mass index of the respondent. Adolescents who successfully fill in the questionnaires and undertake the BMI test, and the values recorded for against the age and the weight of each participant in the study. Notably, the research will seek to highlight the existing correlation between fast foods calorific intake BMIs, and total calorie intake in the diet. In a bid to calculate this, the spear rank that determines the correlation coefficients between the ranks of data will prove useful. The spear rank is one of the powerful data analysis tools under the category of SPSS. Calculating the coefficients will serve to ascertain whether fast foods contain a higher level of calories that can lead to soaring BMIs. This tool will be effective as it will automate data analysis and yield results that can help in the adoption or rejection of the hypothesis. 6.1 Ethical Consideration It is critical to obtain approval from the relevant bodies prior to carrying out any form of research. The university offices and health officials will offer the consent required for this research. Moreover, the participants, who will be either being children or students, need to consent. In the case of children, the parents have a level of responsibility, while students may sign the consent form themselves because they are of age. Bibliography Bagchi, D 2011,Global perspectives on childhood obesity current status, consequences and prevention. London, Academic. P. 123. Branca, F., Nikogosian, H., & Lobstein, T 2007. The challenge of obesity in the WHO European Region and the strategies for response. Copenhagen, Denmark, WHO Regional Office for Europe. p. 505. Culyer, AJ 2013, Encyclopedia of health economics, Burlington, Elsevier Science. p. 40. Ditmier, L. F 2006, New developments in obesity research, Nova Science Publishers, N.Y. p. 134. Dunn, RA 2008,Three essays on the economic determinants of household meal production and eating behavior. Thesis (Ph.D.)-- University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2008. p. 25. Great Britain 2004, Obesity, Stationery Office, London. p. 45. International Congress On Obesity, Bouchard, C., Medeiros Neto, G. A. D., & Halpern, A. (2003). 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