The concerns of obesity in children and young people: physical activity and sedentary behaviours - Dissertation Example

This essay "The concerns of obesity in children and young people: physical activity and sedentary behaviours" outlines the problem of obesity, its impact on the health and factors that lead to it. Despite steady progress over most of the past century toward ensuring the health of the children, the 21st century begins with a startling setback: an epidemic of childhood obesity. This epidemic is occurring in boys and girls worldwide, in younger children as well as adolescents, across all socioeconomic strata, and among all ethnic groups.

At a time when it has been learned that excess weight has significant and troublesome health consequences, we nevertheless see the population, in general; and children, in particular; gaining weight to a dangerous degree and at an alarming rate. As a consequence, dietary guidance for children has broadened from an earlier focus on issues of under consumption and nutrient deficiencies to overconsumption and decreased energy expended in physical activity. Children nowadays live in a society that has changed dramatically in the three decades over which the obesity epidemic has developed.

Several of these changes, such as both parents working outside of the home and the availability of convenience foods often affect decisions about what children eat, how much they eat and the amount of energy they expend in school and leisure-time activities. Many of the social and cultural characteristics that the population has accepted as a normal way of life may collectively contribute to the growing levels of childhood obesity.