Introduction
Obesity is a current rising problem in America, including a large number of obese pregnant women. Obesity in pregnancy can cause numerous problems for the pregnant mother and also increase risk of medical problems for the unborn child. Obese moms need more prenatal care, and with a higher risk of the baby being obese and having lifelong medical problems and also needing more health care throughout its lifetime, the cost from needed care rises. Preconception care and planning along with a healthy diet and exercise can help prevent and avoid many of these complications.
Body
Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) over 30 (mayo). To assist in visualization, a woman who is 64 inches and 170lbs is obese, a woman who is 66 inches and 186lbs is obese, and a woman who is 69 inches and 203lbs is obese (nhlbi). More than one third of Americans are obese (cdc phone) and more than one half of pregnant women are overweight or obese before becoming pregnant (Acog). Because being obese puts one at a considerably higher risk for many health issues, it requires that person to seek more health care and use more health resources than that of someone who is a healthy weight. The CDC says that
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Several of these include but are not limited to: gestational diabetes, pre eclampsia, thrombosis, pregnancy loss, and a higher rate of induction (mayo). “According to the 2014 analysis by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of gestational diabetes is as high as 9.2%”(ada what). Gestational diabetes is just one of the many costly health issues whose risk skyrockets with overweight and obese pregnant women. Treatment generally includes special diet and exercise, but in some cases can also include insulin injections (ada how). Gestational diabetes can cause increased health risks for the unborn child and also increase health risks that can carry over into
Each year, there are about 112,000 deaths from obesity that are preventable. In the past few decades, the number of cases of obesity has been on the rise in the United States. It has tripled among children and doubled among adults. In 1990, Connecticut’s obesity rate was at 10.4 percent. Then, in 2000, it was at 16.0 percent and currently it’s at 26.0 percent.
The Obesity rate has been increasing as the years been passing on almost “one in three children in America are now overweight or obese” (Dirksen 1). Many children are growing up to be obese and are damaging the parent figure as they will most likely share with their kids their disgusting
Over the past century, America portion sizes and waistlines have grown exponentially. In 1975 the largest soft drink size was seven ounces, today a child’s size is 12 ounces. Also in the seventies high fructose corn syrup was invented and became a common ingredient in fast foods. Technology has contributed to our laziness and the ease of not leaving your couch to order more food. Obesity is a big problem caused by portion sizes, processed food and sugars, and technology.
The obesity epidemic is only becoming more world wide spread as years continue to pass. Obesity has dramatically caused many negative effects on America and the way we live today. Obesity is simply defined as having excessive body fat usually resulting in serious medical problems. More specifically, though, obesity occurs when a person's Body Mass Index (BMI) — or, their weight in kilometers divided by the square of height in meters — exceeds 30 or greater. Studies have shown that about 13 million children and adolescents ages 2-19 are obese according to the article “Childhood Obesity: Can it Really Be Child Neglect?” by Abbie Goldbas.
Research has it that nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or rather obese. As campaign to sensitize the masses against habits that might otherwise lead to rise in victims affected by obese conditions is being aired by medics, the media and the rational public, it is evident that there is elevated prevalence of obesity in the United States which has since doubled the initial number of the previous decades. It is a matter of urgency and it calls for stringent measures to curb this condition. Before totally embarking on the topic of what causes obesity and ways of dealing with it, it is pertinent to understand the meaning of being overweight. Medics have the capacity of classifying people based on their weights and different classifications
Ultimately, obesity would force its way into many lives through the lack of exercise and healthy food adults and children were getting daily. As a matter of fact, obesity in children alone have tripled in Canada just in the past 30 years. Meanwhile, across the globe obesity has soared in all places like Europe, Africa, and Saudi Arabia. As a result, the solution has been talked and explored upon by scientists to household parent. Rather than bore anyone with the extreme into details hypothesis or the experimental projects done by parents.
Obesity is an epidemic in the United States that has risen steadily over the last 30 years. Obesity effects all populations in the US, from young and old to people with disabilities. . For children and adolescents age 2 to 19 years, obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile of the sex-specific CDC BMI-for-age growth charts. For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years, the prevalence of obesity has remained fairly stable at about 17% and affects about 12.7 million children and adolescents for the past decade. On the other hand, more than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese.
Out of the 3,039 women initially screened, 1,423 women were used for this sample study, the others being excluded due to lack of assessment or data on the questionnaire. All of these women were receiving prenatal care at the University Obstetrics Clinic and delivered at the University of Washington Hospital during the time period of January 2004 to June 2011. After all of the exclusions made, I believe the sample size that was used was large enough to obtain information from the screenings. Data was also collected during a 7 year time period, which I believe is an adequate amount of time to obtain a varied amount of information on predictor variables. However, all of the data collected was from one obstetrics clinic in one urban area of the U.S. Conducting screenings and obtaining data from various clinics in different regions of the U.S. could have resulted in different findings due to demographic variables, medical conditions, health-related behaviors and pregnancy-related variables of the
Obesity is one of Americas leading health problems. Evidence shows that every 2 in 3 adults in the United States are overweight or considered to have obesity and 1 in 6 children are obese (“Overweight and Obesity Statics”). People are overweight when their BMI (body mass index) is about 25 pounds over their average weight, and they are obese when it gets over 30 pounds. This lifestyle is considered just a weight problem to many, however, obesity can lead to chronic disease and even death. This problem is not declining soon.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999-2002 survey) determined that approximately 65% of the U.S. adult population was either obese or overweight. This survey also indicated that an estimated 16% of children between the ages of 6 and 19 years are overweight. And, there is no doubt that obesity is on the rise in our country! Why the upwards trend in obesity? As most of us are aware, Americans have fallen prey to high-fat, high-sugar, high-calorie diets (common in fast food restaurants).
Throughout the years, the obesity rate in America has been dramatically increasing. Obesity is when a person has too much body weight which can be defined by a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. ("Obesity." 1). There is a difference between feeling fat or being slightly overweight and being obese. Feeling fat is a thought or perception that someone has about themselves or someone else.
Obesity has increased so much it can be said to have replaced tobacco as the number one preventable cause of diseases in America (Hall). Obesity is a condition characterized by the excessive gathering and storage of fat in the body. In recent years, the number of people diagnosed with obesity has increased dramatically. In the article “Washington: Nearly Four in Ten U.S. Adults Now Obese,” it notes that “almost four out of ten adults and 18.5 percent of kids aged two to nineteen now meet the clinical definition of obesity, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Obese people are commonly seen battling with basic tasks like walking, climbing stairs, or even bending over, and that is a hard way to live a life.
More than one in three young people are considered to be obese. More than one in twenty young people are considered to have maximum obese. About one-third of kids and teenagers ages between 6 to 19 are considered to be either overweight or obese. More than one in six kids and teenagers ages between 6 to 19 are considered to be obese. All these numbers refer to a serious issue in
According to the researcher, a high BMI of over 30 kg/m2 in the pre-pregnancy period increases the chances of adverse effects on the mother and the child. The mother has an increased risk of mortality, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes and the child is at risk of congenital anomalies, infant mortality and reduced rate of breastfeeding. The researcher does not bring out the problem directly but argues that in the UK and internationally, the number of women who are obese during pregnancy is on the rise and this means an increase in the healthcare cost of managing these women. The main problem is that despite there being guidelines and standards of care published internationally, and pathways of care developed, a barrier to the practice
Obesity is one of the most pressing problems around the world. Globally, it has risen twice over between 1980 and 2014 (WHO, January 2015). The WHO factsheet on obesity and overweight reports 13% of the world’s adult population to be obese, i.e. 11% of men and 15% of women, and 39% of the population aged over 18 to be overweight (38% of men and 40% of women) in 2014. In 2013, 42 million children were reported to be either obese or overweight (WHO, January 2015). Obesity has been defined by the WHO as “abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health” and Body Mass Index (BMI) is used to measure overweight and obesity in adults.