The inevitable rise in the prevalence of obesity in adults over the last couple of decades, followed more recently by a comparable increase in children and adolescents, is not only alarming in its own right (Cole, 2006 ), but it continues to place significant public health challenges, not only in the United States but also globally (USDHHS, n.d.). It is against this background that the present paper aims to discuss the issue of childhood obesity with a view to elucidating evidence about the significance of this topic to the discipline of public health. The paper will also touch on the prevalence of the health challenges in statistical terms, how childhood obesity relates to communities, the financial impact of childhood obesity, and the goals and objectives for the future.
According to Cole (2006), “…obesity is at its simplest excess adiposity” (p. 4). Reilly (2006) defines obesity as an excess of body fat; that is, accumulation of a certain level of body fat that is considered harmful to the correct functioning of the body and its vital organs, such as the heart, lungs, and liver.
Despite the simplicity of its definition, the rate at which obesity has been causing health challenges in both developed and developing worlds guarantees its significance to the broad discipline of public health. As a matter of fact, there has been an ongoing debate in the United States about the possibility of obesity surpassing smoking as the leading cause of death, and it has come to the attention of researchers that some developing countries are being increasingly confronted with the double burden of undernourishment or under-nutrition in some sections of the population and obesity or over-nutrition in others (Eriksen, 2006). Cole (2006) notes that accumulating evidence has associated obesity with morbidity and mortality from a broad range of chronic illnesses, “…including heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and, more recently, cancer, making obesity one of the most serious public health issues of our time” (p. 3). The above presentation informs the significance of the selected topic to public health.
Current global statistics on childhood obesity are, at best, heart-breaking. For the developed countries, approximations from the year 2000 onwards using all-inclusive national definitions suggest between 10 percent and 25 percent of the pediatric population is obese (Reilly, 2006). Quoting the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted between 1999 and 2002, USDHSS (n.d.) notes that the number of adolescents who are overweight in the United States has more than tripled since 1980, while the prevalence among young children or pediatric population has more than doubled. Going by the NHANES study findings, it is generally assumed that 16 percent of American children aged 6-19 years are overweight, with the figures expected to rise due to poor dietary habits and lack of physical exercise. In England in 2003, an estimated three in every ten children between the ages of 2-11 years were either overweight or obese, up from an estimated two in every ten children in 1995 (Reilly, 2006). The same picture is painted in developing countries, where cases of childhood obesity have increased dramatically in recent years.
Childhood obesity directly impacts the affected communities by virtue of the fact that it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in these communities (Cole, 2006). Irwin et al (2010) note that there is compelling evidence pointing to the fact that childhood obesity reduces the academic and social productivity of the affected children, not mentioning that it is a leading cause of stigmatization in some societies, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. Childhood obesity is not only the leading cause of pediatric hypertension, but it is either directly or indirectly related to other health risks, including psychological ill-health, cardiovascular risk factors, asthma, chronic inflammation, diabetes, orthopedic abnormalities, and liver disease (Reilly, 2006; Irwin et al, 2010 ). Such health risks, in my view, will only condemn whole communities to the peripherals of poverty, social strife, and despair, thus the need to engage in proper management of the condition before it spirals out of control.
The financial implications of childhood obesity to communities are indeed immense if the above complications resulting from the heath condition are anything to go by. Not only is childhood obesity an important health burden for communities in its own right (Reilly, 2006), but the major complications associated with the condition, including the risk of developing heart disease, liver disease, and diabetes, weighs heavily on the economic position of these communities by virtue of the fact that some of these health conditions are very costly to treat (Levy & Petty, 2008).
Lastly, it is indeed true that initiatives aimed at preventing or treating childhood obesity require multifaceted and multi-disciplinary approaches if they are to succeed (Levy & Petty, 2008). In this perspective, the goals for the future in respect to eradication or reduction of prevalence in childhood obesity must revolve around a multiplicity of issues that are sensitive to the needs and demands of the affected child as well as the expectations and resource base of communities in need. It is with this in mind that the goals for the future should be set around issues such as motivating the young ones and their families to actively undergo treatment, modification of diet, encouraging reduced television viewing and media use to reduce unhealthy eating habits advertised on these forms of media, encouraging increased physical activity, encouraging proactive self-monitoring and self-assessment of own lifestyle, and availing constant consultation services for individuals and families in need (Reilly, 2006).
Reference List
Cole, T.J. (2006). Childhood obesity: Assessment and prevalence. In: N. Cameroon, G. Hastings, & G. Ellison (Eds). Childhood obesity: Contemporary issues. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group.
Eriksen, M. (2006). Are there public health lessons that can be used to help prevent childhood obesity? Health Education Research, 21(6), 753-754.
Irwin, C.C., Irwin, R.L., Miller, M.E., Somes, G.W., & Richey, P.A. (2010). Get fit with the grizzlies: A community-school-home initiative to fight childhood obesity. Journal of School Health, 80(7), 333-339.
Levy, L.Z., & Petty, K. (2008). Childhood obesity prevention: Compelling challenge of the twenty-first century. Early Childhood Development & Care, 178(6), 609-615.
Reilly, J.J. (2006). Obesity in childhood and adolescence: Evidence-based clinical and public health perspectives.Postgraduate Medical Journal, 82(969), 429-437. Web.
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (n.d.). Childhood obesity. Web.