Childhood Obesity Affect Society In The Future

How Will Childhood Obesity Affect Society in the Future

McKenzie Sides

English III

Mrs. Wright

5 November 2015

McKenzie Sides

English III

Mrs. Wright

5 November 2015

How Will Childhood Obesity Affect Society in the Future

Obesity has nearly doubled in young children, while it has quadrupled in adolescents in the last thirty years. CDC states that for children and adolescents aged 2-19 years, the prevalence of obesity has remained stable at 12.7 million children. Most obese children or adolescents grow up to become obese as adults. Childhood obesity has a huge impact on society by causing health problems in adulthood such as disease, poor self-esteem, and psychological problems.

Childhood obesity can be caused by many different

Daneman and Hamilton said that obesity is also associated with psychological problems such as poor self-esteem and depression. Even though not every obese child will face these problems, doctors are starting to see these factors in children at a younger age. Many obese children today are developing health conditions that only once affected adults. Children that are obese have to cope with the illnesses that come with being so young and obese. Also, obese children can develop conditions like heart disease begins really early in their lives. When these factors appear in children at such a young age, it can cause them to have health problems in adolescenthood, teenage years, and adulthood. The Future of Children state that the increase in obese children can have an impact on the economy as well. The estimated cost of treating obese children is relatively small but quickly rising. Guijing Wang and William Dietz estimated that the hospital costs of treating obese-related conditions rose from $35 million to 127 million from 1979-1999. There are two main reasons we should focus on obesity in children: if they are obese as children, they will most likely be obese as adults and it is more difficult for obese children to lose weight. Even though there have been new drugs and medical procedures for treating obesity-related conditions developed over the past years, these procedures are expensive and are not

The relative intellectual and psychological immaturity of children compared with adults, and susceptibility to peer pressure present additional practical obstacles to the successful treatment of childhood obesity. For this reason, most efforts to reduce obesity in children have used either family-based or school-based approaches. (Ebbeling, Pawlak, Ludwig) According to Kelly Brownell, school-based interventions can help prevent and treat childhood obesity. “School-based efforts have been oriented towards prevention, targeting all students in selected classes to avoid stigmatisation of obese children. The pathways program for American Indian kids who are at high risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes was a large-scale cooperative effort among food-service personnel, classroom and P.E. teachers, and families. The aim of the program was to reduce dietary fat consumption and augment physical activity. The intervention effect was attributed to reduced television viewing. The APPLES intervention involved nutrition education, provision of healthy cafeteria lunches, a fitness program, improved playground facilities, and extracurricular activities. The CATCH intervention also aimed to reduce dietary fat consumption and increase physical activity. ” Although few family-based studies produced long-term results in some individuals, non-surgical ways have been