Childhood Obesity: An Emerging Health Issue - Research Paper Example

? Childhood Obesity: An Emerging Health Issue Childhood Obesity: An Emerging Health Issue Introduction Childhood obesity is becoming a potential health issue in the modern society, particularly in the Western world. The rapid increase in the number of obese children can be attributed to a modern lifestyle that eggs on an unhealthy food pattern and sedentary habits. Obesity is a physical condition resulting from excessive accumulation of body fat or adipose tissue. In addition to deskbound lifestyle and poor eating habits, genetic and psychological reasons may also cause obesity. An individual is said to be obese when his/her Body Mass Index (BMI) crosses the range of 30. This issue also affects children, and the resulted health problem is normally termed as childhood obesity. A major complication of childhood obesity is that it is likely to lead juvenile patients to future adulthood obesity. Statistical forecasts indicate that if the current prevalence rate of childhood obesity continues, nearly over two third Australian adults will be obese by 2025. This paper will particularly discuss childhood obesity as an emerging health issue. This will also propose an action plan to address this threatening health issue. An Overview of the Issue Childhood obesity is chosen for this final paper as the emerging health issue, for this topic is extremely relevant in the modern society. To illustrate, some recent research points at the fact that currently obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States (Lacey, 2010). There is no commonly accepted definition for childhood obesity. The major burden caused by this issue is its chronic nature. Since this health problem develops in childhood itself, victims need to face its consequences for a longer period of their lifetime. Evidently, a high cost of care is one of the major concerns of childhood obesity. Due to this problem, every child does not obtain proper treatment. As physicians indicate, untreated obesity may lead to other dreadful health conditions including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, sleep problems, and cancer. In addition, obese children are more likely to develop some other health problems including liver disease, early puberty, eating disorders, skin infections, asthma, and respiratory issues. In order to meet the growing health care costs related with childhood obesity, governments and other public health organizations are forced to spend huge amounts on this sector. To illustrate, currently the annual US spending on obesity-related health problems stands on $147 billon; and according to a recently released McKinsey report (as cited in Korbe, 2012), this amount may be increased to $320 billion a year by 2018. Studies point that obese children are extremely vulnerable to emotional or psychological problems. To illustrate, it is very difficult for obese children to lead a normal life. They tend to feel inferior to others and, in turn, get affected throughout their life. Psychological practitioners report that victims of childhood obesity are often teased by their peers and discriminated by their family members. Evidently, such practices can dreadfully influence the mental health of children as they may eventually develop a sense of abandonment. This is the major reason why obese children are prone to low self-esteem and depression. In the same way, obese children demonstrate poor intellectual performance relative to normal children. Therefore, the victims of this health condition fail to significantly contribute to the economic growth of the nation. In other words, obese children add to the economic burden of a nation. It is identified that childhood obesity has the potential to increase a mortality rate during the adulthood. Evidently, children are the major group affected by obesity. To justify, obese children are to lead the rest of their life bearing this chronic health condition. In addition, the incidence rate of childhood obesity has dramatically increased over the last few decades. As Han, Lawlor, and Kimm (2010) point out, the prevalence rate of childhood obesity has doubled or tripled over the period 1970s-1990s in the USA, the UK, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Finland, Chile, Greece, and Japan. Referring to some recent studies, Han et al. (2010) indicate that a significant percent of children in the North American and eastern Mediterranean WHO regions, Europe, western Pacific, and Southeast Asia is expected to be overweight or obese over the next few years. Programme Initiatives Prevention is the better strategy to deal with this health condition as there is no proved treatment for childhood obesity yet. As children are the audience group most affected by this issue, prevention programs must focus on the family environment. It is clear that a child will be usually with its family when it passes through early growth stages. As researchers point out, family lifestyle can be one of the major contributory factors to childhood obesity. Family lifestyle practices such as eating, shopping, and exercise can have a great influence on one’s abnormal body weight problem. In addition, children who are addicted to prolonged television watching and computer usage are most likely to be affected by an excessive accumulation of fat. Finally, refraining from regular physical activities also increases children’s risk of developing childhood obesity. Therefore, a family-based action plan would be extremely potential to regulate this chronic health problem successfully. The prevention program planned here particularly focuses on children’s dietary habits and lifestyle culture. As Minelli and Breckon (2009, p. 82) report, lifestyle change programs are intended to produce healthy lifestyle changes among the targeted audience group. Furthermore, the program will try to provide children with good health education. In addition, the program requires active involvement of other family members, specifically parents. As demonstrated in a YouTube video, encouraging more fruits and vegetable ingestion and limitation of stationary activities like prolonged TV watching also constitute the program (“Saying No to Fattening Foods”). This program would be a comprehensive framework that suggests a healthy lifestyle culture for children. Once the child learns good dietary patterns and other healthy habits from the family, it is likely to continue this lifestyle for the rest of their life. Since family is a child’s first learning environment, the proposed family-based prevention program can be very effective to address the growing childhood obesity issues. The main goal of this health program is to grow awareness of childhood obesity among people. Generally, children spend a significant amount of their time in the family, and, hence, it is important to keep parents and other grown up family members informed of the complications of this long term health condition. It is a fact that majority of the modern people are not actually concerned about the implications of their eating habits. Undoubtedly, children and their caregivers would shift to a healthy lifestyle culture once they realized the dreadful impacts of childhood obesity. Another objective of this program is to enlighten people about how to fight this health issue. More precisely, this program aims to provide the audience group with a good lifestyle habit that would minimize the chances of an excessive body fat accumulation. The ultimate aim of the planned prevention program is to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity in the country, and, hence, to help the government to reduce costs associated with prevention and intervention. In a long term perspective, this response program aims to improve the overall health of the chosen audience group. Providing peer education for children and their parents is the primary element of the prevention program. Better awareness on the issue is necessary to obtain active people involvement in the program. For instance, daily physical activities for at least 60 minutes would help people keep obesity/overweight problems under control. This information may persuade people to include such a healthy lifestyle practice in their daily life. This program depends on social marketing techniques to promote the responsive action plan. According to Stellefson and Eddy (2008), social marketing is an effective strategy to market health education. For instance, it is better to organize TV and online campaigns to make people aware of the growing prevalence of childhood obesity in the country. In addition, community based workshop programs can be organized for families as a part of the prevention program. It also includes counseling programs for obese children in order to give them emotional or psychological support. The proposed program strongly suggests concerned healthcare authorities should check children for overweight/obesity at least once a year. Attribution theory is one of the major health behavior theories used in the proposed childhood obesity program. The theory was first proposed by Fritz Heider. According to this theory, people tend to provide a causal explanation for events in their daily life if they are unexpected and have personal relevance. Based on this theory, people will try to seek a casual explanation for a serious illness. Therefore, if people realize the childhood obesity is a serious health condition, they will certainly seek a causal explanation which is really beneficial to keep them informed of different prevention strategies. The planned action framework is also supported by the health belief model (HBM). The HBM states that if an individual is vulnerable to a severe condition, this situation will act as a cue to take action so as to spark change. Hence, if people understand that they are vulnerable to obesity, they will certainly take immediate actions to bring necessary changes to their current lifestyle. Program Implementation and Evaluation First, it is essential to convince parents about the necessity of restricting the amount of sugar-laden soft drinks and calorie-rich food items consumed by children. In addition, children must be advised to take homely food instead of fast food, which contain excess amount of fat (“Saying No to Afternoon Sweets”). Guidance must be given to children on the essentiality of following a proper time schedule for eating. However, in order to implement this prevention program effectively in the family environment, first parents and other grown up members must be ready to shift to a healthy lifestyle culture. Hence, the suggested prevention program will pay particular attention to organizing workshop classes for parents. Active involvement of community health organizations is vital to evaluate the outcomes of this prevention program. Those social interest organizations have to periodically examine children in their area to assess the effectiveness of the program implemented. In addition, it is better to assess the number of childhood obesity cases reported in health institutions after the implementation of the program. Influence of the Program on Overall Health of the Community Surely, this program can have significant influences on the health of the target audience as well as overall health of the community. Since this program makes children and their parents aware of the complications of childhood obesity, the audience group and the overall community would be concerned about the seriousness of this health condition. According to the attribution theory and the health belief model, people would seek casual explanation for their life events and accept a shift in lifestyle once they realize that they are affected by a serious health problem. Adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors by the audience group for a lifetime is expected to be one of the major achievements of the prevention program designed. Through counseling techniques, this program can promote a behavior modification in obese children. When obese children feel a sense of belonging and maintain a positive approach towards the life, it would be easy for one to manage their health condition. This prevention program would accomplish a range of societal as well as environmental changes which are vital to address the issue of childhood obesity. Evidently, when the frequency of childhood obesity is reduced in the society, this, in turn, would minimize the risk of adulthood obesity. The ultimate result is that the overall health of the community is thus improved. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that childhood obesity is growing to be a major health issue in developed countries, particularly Australia and the United States. Children constitute the audience group most affected by this health problem. Its chronic nature, dreadful complications like heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer, and high cost of care intensify the challenges of this health condition. In order to tackle this problem, a family-based prevention program is proposed. Peer education, social marketing, community-based workshops, and counseling programs are some of the major elements of this prevention framework. Active involvement of community health organizations is necessary to ensure the success of this program and to improve the overall health of the community thereby. References Han, J. C., Lawlor, D. A. & Kimm, S. Y. S. (2010). Childhood obesity. American Medical Network. Retrieved from http://www.health.am/weightloss/childhood-obesity/ Korbe, T. (2012). Democratic congressman: The federal government has to fight childhood obesity for the budget. Hotair, March 21. Retrieved from http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/21/democratic-congressman-the-federal-government-has-to-fight-childhood-obesity-for-the-budget/ Lacey, H. (2010). Research confirms obesity is now leading cause of preventable death in U.S. examiner.com. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/research-confirms-obesity-is-now-leading-cause-of-preventable-death-u-s Minelli, J. J., & Breckon, D. (2009). Community health education: Settings, roles, and skills. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Saying No to Fattening Foods (What's Harder #1). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX0Wz59YcDY&feature=related Stellefson, M & Eddy, J. M. (2008). Health education and marketing processes: 2 related methods for achieving health behavior change. Am J Health Behav, 32 (5): 488-496. Saying No to Afternoon Sweets (What's Harder #2). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7kXj-p1okQ&NR=1&feature=endscreen Read More