The impact of obesity among young people between 14 and 20 years in United Kingdom - Research Paper Example

The Impact of obesity Among Young people between 14 and 20 years in United Kingdom Introduction Obesity refers to the excessive accumulation of body fats within human body that makes people at least 20% heavier than their ideal body weight (Kopelman, 2005, p93). Obesity is a very common problem that has become a challenge for people living in different countries of the world belonging to different age groups, gender and social class. With no exception, United Kingdom is also facing the critical challenge of obesity among the people that is dramatically increasing with each passing year. In UK, people of almost all the age groups, sex and social class are found victim of obesity whereas the young adults are also getting obese with alarming rates (Must et al, 2006, p1350). Statistics show that one in five 15 year old is obese and one in five 13 to 16 year young person is overweight in UK. The data indicate the prevalence of growing and serious problem in the country that is mainly fuelled by the unhealthy life styles, fatty diets and lack of exercise and physical activities etc. (http://www.dh.gov.uk). These causes lead towards very harmful impacts that the obese young people have to face throughout their present and future lives in terms of poor heath quality, social interaction and emotional problems, stress and early deaths (Kopelman, 2005, p93). The following essay aims to discuss the impact of obesity among the young people of 14 to 20 years in United Kingdom. In this regard, the essay presents the review of the related literature and information to discuss different impacts of obesity upon the young people. The essay concludes that obesity is very serious problem faced by people of UK and prevalence of this problem among the young people indicate that in coming year the overall number of obese people in the country will reach high limits. The essay also point out different harmful impacts of obesity upon the physical health, mental wellbeing and social interaction patterns of the people. Literature Review Impact of Obesity upon Young People between 14 and 20 years in UK Studies have shown the results that 89% of the young people have the potential to become obese adults due to which the number of obese people will increase at alarming rate with each passing year. According to the estimates if the rate of obesity will continue among the young people it could be expected that within next 25 year almost half of the population of the country would become obese (http://www.dh.gov.uk) . Obesity seems spreading like epidemic in the country and the physical and mental health issues raised due to obesity are also becoming very common (Kopelman, 2005, p93). Obesity draws severe health problems to the human body and the young people also have to face some very serious impact of obesity in their future lives. The impact of obesity among the young people between 14 and 20 in UK could be studied from different perspectives like social impact, psychological impact and health impact because obesity is not simply a physical or health problem but it affects each and every facet of human life and affect their way of living, behaving and interacting with the people (Kopelman, 2005, p93). Psychological and Social Impacts The social and psychological impacts of obesity among the young people of 14-20 years in UK also possess great importance. The people of this age group go to school and colleges where they have to interact with lot of people and also have the chance to participate in different extracurricular activities and public gatherings. Obesity changes the outlook of the youngsters drawing negative impact upon their personal appearance. They often feel uncomfortable in moving among people and others make fun of them due to their appearance. The problem in social movement affects the self-esteem of the young people and led them towards social disabilities and unhappiness that ultimately results in stress and even mental illness (Dietz, 2004, p518). Research studies have proved that the overweight young people are more likely to become victim as well as perpetrator of bullying, teasing and name calling etc. Most of the young obese people appear funny figures to other and they are not taken seriously as the other people of their age group are considered. It implies that the psychological impacts of obesity are very serious because it affects the personality development, body image, social interaction patterns and social behaviours of the young people (Janssen et al, 2004, p1187). The overweight youngsters often start getting the feeling that they are from some other world and they could not adjust with the normal people until or unless they become victim of cullying or get involved in such activities at their selves. It is commonly observed that the obese youngster fail to get proper respect and reception from their peers and they are considered less important and socially incapable as compared with the young people with normal weight. The obese young people are commonly harassed and discriminated by the others causing lower self-esteem and depression among them (Cornette, 2008, p136). It is also found that the parents of the obese children become worried about the social and emotional wellbeing of their children and they often complain that their overweight children do not perform well in their schools or colleges and they struggle socially due to the behaviour of others with them. These issues often make youngsters sensitive and emotionally weak and they find them helpless in overcoming their obesity (Must et al, 2006, p1350). Impact upon Health Quality and Life expectancy It is generally thought that the children and young people face lesser health related problems as compared with the adults due to obesity however, it is an important fact that the children and young people facing the problem of obesity became at high risk of becoming overweight in their future lives and the probability of serious diseases caused by obesity also became very high among them. There are great chances that like obese adult the young people will also suffer from different health issues in their lives like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases and strokes etc. Hence, the impact of obesity among the young people could not be overlooked and it is very important to prevent obesity among them to reduce the harmful impacts of obesity upon the quality of their health and life (Cornette, 2008, p136). Obesity results in weakness of physical health and well-being. The life expectancy of obese people decline as compared with the others because obesity invites lot of serious health problems that usually end up the lives of people earlier. Research studies have proved the link between obesity and early deaths (Dietz, 2004, p518). The impact of obesity upon the health of the young people turns very serious with the discovery that obesity is equally harmful for human life as smoking and the early deaths caused by obesity are also equal to the early deaths caused by smoking. Obesity increases the risk of dying at early age due to number of severe diseases led by obesity like high blood pressure and health problem etc. (Cornette, 2008, p136) The link between obesity in young age and premature death is also proved. People having obesity by the age of 18-20 are not likely to live long life with health. The people with higher than normal BMI face three fold increased risk to death as compared with normal weight people because they suffer from the health problems like cancer, cholesterol, puberty, menarche, eating disorder and sleeping problem that remain with them for years and usually end up with their lives (Dietz, 2004, p518). Another research study conducted among the attendant of Harvard school of public health unveils that the young people with obesity are at high risk of suffering from cancer in their future life and thus their life expectancy also becomes very low due to cancer in their later lives. The possibility of lungs cancer increased among the obese young adults even if they will never smoke in their lives (Janssen et al, 2004, p1187). Method / Research Design The research method selected for preparing the research paper is secondary analysis of data. The research paper follows the qualitative research design. It is found that the topic could be best dealt with the help of qualitative research approach as it deals with the issue of impact of obesity and not simply the prevalence of obesity that could be studied with the help of quantitative research approach. There are several methods of conducting qualitative research work however keeping in view the time frame, word limit and resources for the study it was found that the secondary analysis of data would be the best research method. Secondary analysis of data allows examining the existing research work and data conducted around the same time in order to get detailed and deep understanding of the topic under study (Corti and Bishop, 2005, p6). Since the research paper focuses upon the topic of impact of obesity among the young people in UK, the literature focusing upon the issue of obesity among young people in UK are accessed through different academic resources and the information has been accessed to get detailed understanding of the issue. In this way, the research work has been conducted with the help of the review of the secondary data related with the topic of the research paper. Inclusion Exclusion Criteria Efforts have been made to collect information and data from up to date resources In this regard, the research studies conducted during the last 5-6 years are accessed for the essay. The research studies focusing upon the issue of obesity among the young people are included whereas the research studies explaining the problem of obesity in general are also studies to understanding the background of the issue and the meaning of the term obesity. The research studies focusing upon the topic of obesity and gender and obesity and social class etc. are not included because the research paper does not deal with this aspect of the issue. Ethics There are some ethical considerations also kept in mind while preparing the research paper. The information has been collected from different secondary resources and great care has been taken to give due credit of each source in form of in text citations. The information has been presented in the way that no fact is destroyed or misrepresented while rewriting in essay form. The essay has been written from scratch and no part of the essay has been directly copied from any other document. Proper referencing has been done to avoid the possibilities of plagiarism. References Analysis of the National Childhood Obesity Database 2005/06, a report for the Department of Health. Available at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsStatistics/DH_063565 Cornette R (2008). "The emotional impact of obesity on children". Worldviews Evid Based Nurs 5 (3): 136–41. Corti, L. & Bishop, L. (2005) Strategies in Teaching Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data FQS 6(1) Dietz WH (2004). "Health consequences of obesity in youth: childhood predictors of adult disease". Pediatrics 101 (2): 518–25. Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Health Committee (2004). Obesity - Volume 1 - HCP 23-I, Third Report of session 2003-04. Report, together with formal minutes. London, UK: TSO (The Stationery Office) Janssen I, Craig WM, Boyce WF, Pickett W (2004). "Associations between overweight and obesity with bullying behaviors in school-aged children". Pediatrics 113 (5): 1187–94. Kopelman, P. (2005). Clinical obesity in adults and children: In Adults and Children. Blackwell Publishing. Must A, Jacques PF, Dallal GE, Bajema CJ, Dietz WH (2006). "Long-term morbidity and mortality of overweight adolescents. A follow-up of the Harvard Growth Study of 1922 to 1935". The New England journal of medicine 327 (19): 1350–5. Read More