Obesity in School-Age Children - Term Paper Example

OBESITY IN SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN Introduction Family health is very essential as it plays an imperative role towards the health of a nation and its overall development. School age children form a large percentage of the family unit in Australia today. There are various health issues that affect different age groups of people in the society. School age children are also prone to certain health issues. (Cohen, 2002) One of the most common health problems among school age children in Australia is obesity. It is quite imperative to note that there are various factors that contribute to the prevalence of this problem. This paper will therefore identify these contributing factors. It will further expound on the effect that the problem has on the family. Finally recommendations will be made concerning the problem. (ABS, 2009) Definition of terms Schmidt, (2007) in his article defines obesity as a health problem that is characterised by accumulation of fats in the body that usually result in various health problems. People who are obese normally have a shorter life expectancy as compared to those with normal weight. Body mass index (BMI) is a method used by healthcare practitioners to determine the ration of fat to body’s mass. (Schmidt, 2007) This is whereby an individual’s height is compared to his weight. It is used to determine whether someone is obese, overweight or underweight. School going age ranges from four years to teenage years. That’s when they start nursery then primary then to secondary schools. (Schmidt, 2007) Background Obesity among children has been on the increase since the nineteenth century. The rates have escalated from approximately fourteen percent to thirty percent. This has been affected by the change in lifestyles among many families. Fifty to seventy percent of households in Australia are characterised by diets that have high fat content and very minimal whole foods. (ABS, 2009) The degree of engagement of school going children in physical activities has dropped drastically. This is by approximately forty nine percent. This has also contributed a great deal. It is worth noting that since the nineteenth century, Australia as a nation has lost more than fifty three thousand children who succumbed to the illness. (ABS, 2009) Discussion According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the problems of obesity are quite prevalent among school going children. This is very common among children of five to ten years. Research carried out on this issue shows that obesity in Australia is very common among children from affluent families. It was also noted that it is quite common in urban areas as compared to the rural areas. (Cohen, 2002) Various factors have contributed to the prevalence of this problem. One of the most common contributing factors is the lifestyle that is quite common in many homes. An analysis on most urban homes indicated that many families are taking junk food. Parents are allowing their children to take foodstuffs that have a lot of fats that wholemeal food. This affects children’s health as they tend to store the fat leading to the problem of obesity. (Currie, 2005) Another contributing factor to this problem is the issue of lack of exercise. Many families currently prefer their children to play indoor games as compared to outdoor ones. This includes computer games and other less strenuous games. It is also very common to find children of school going age watching television during their free time rather than play outdoor games with their peers. (ABS, 2009) The more time that they spend indoors the more they eat since food is just at their disposal. This therefore results in a situation where they are eating more and using less of their energy. When children play outdoor games, they use stored fats to generate energy. When they just sit, they continue to store fats in their bodies leading to the issue of obesity. (Case, 2002) It is no longer mandatory for school children to participate in physical activities such as football, volleyball and hockey among others. School going children are allowed to choose what they want and most of them choose computer games. (Davidoff, 2006) Lifestyles among various homes have also led to increase in rates of obesity among school going children. Majority of children are not allowed to carry out any tasks by themselves. When they are still very young they have baby sitters who help them around. As time goes by, they have ayahs to take care of them. This includes preparing meals, cleaning the house, clothes and general cleaning and household chores. This results in a situation where children just sit in the house without doing anything. This makes them to use very little of their energy or stored up fats. This situation is very common even among adolescents who are in a capacity to do most of household chores by themselves. This situation has been aggravated by parents being so busy such that they cannot monitor their children’s behaviour in the home. It therefore results in obesity among school age children. Effects on the family One of the major effects that this problem has had on the family is in relation to finances. Obesity in school age children normally results in other complications such type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure among others. Treatment of such ailments normally takes a good portion of family resources. This therefore results in a case where a big portion of financial resources are being used for medical purposes. (Dubay, 2005) Some of the obese young people even go to the extent of having surgery so as to reduce their weight. This venture takes a lot of money. These finances would have otherwise been used for other developmental ventures. It therefore hampers development within the family unit. As earlier on illustrated, obese children normally have many other complications such as high blood pressure. All these ailments result in reduced life expectancy in affected children. Obesity among school going children can result in conflicts in the family. This is very common in cases where it leads to many other ailments that depreciate family resources. (Bridgit, 2006) This can easily result in conflicts among family members in terms of who did not play his role. The blame game can easily start and in most cases the mother of the child or the affected children is normally blamed most. This can result in conflicts within family circles that can easily spill over to other areas within the family unit. (Bridgit, 2006) Once a family’s resources start depreciating, conflicts become the order of the day. Some of these conflicts reach a level where divorce is inevitable. Therefore obesity among school children can result in separation or even divorce in some marriages. Separation during engagement period of children who are obese is on the increase as compared to their counterparts who are not obese. (Dubay, 2004) Sometimes teachers may call an obese child names that relate to his or her health problem. It is worse when the child is a poor performer in academics. It is very common to find these children being transferred from one school to the other. They are normally confined to the house. This is more so when the situation is in extreme cases where the child cannot do anything on his own that his or her peers do. This is quite stressful to the on family as a whole. (Pattison, 2004) Recommendations Various recommendations have been made that can help solve the problem of obesity among school going children. Primary healthcare needs to be highly implemented in the entire nation. Health practitioners need to educate parents on the need of giving children wholemeal foodstuffs. They should be enlightened on the need to educate their children on importance of taking wholemeal foodstuffs with low fats. (Bridgit, 2005) This includes minimising food that is highly fatty. Meals also need to be prepared using oil and not fat that is high in cholesterol that enhances obesity. Nurses and other healthcare practitioners also need to educate school going children on the effects that their diet has on their health. (Bridgit, 2005) This includes their day to day choices that may hamper their health in the long run. This can easily be carried out through the use of magazines, newspapers and brochures. This information can also be passed on to school children through the use of skits. This will enable all school age children to be keen with their day to day choices of the food they take. (Quinn, 2006) It is highly recommended that parents allow their children to carry out household chores from a tender age. This includes tiding up the house, cleaning utensils and preparing meals among other household duties. This will help children to be active and use up the energy for constructive work. Parents also need to ensure that their children are not only involved in indoor games such as computer games, watching television etc. They also need to be encouraged to have outdoor games such as football, baseball and hockey among others. (NHMRC, 2009) Conclusion In conclusion, obesity is a common problem among school age children in Australia. Various factors have been attributed to this. They include lifestyle in many homes where wholemeal are not part of the diet. Many children stay indoors and play computer games, watch television etc. Such games do not involve them physically hence pilling up of fats that eventually lead to obesity. Obesity affects families in diverse ways. This includes depleting family’s financial resources as parents try to find treatment for the problem and other accompanied ailments. The issue of obesity also results in conflicts that lead to separation and divorce. It is highly recommended that health practitioners educate parents on diet that improves their children’s health. School administrators also need education on encouraging physical education and outdoor activities among students. All this will have help improve health among school going children in the nation. Read More