Summary of Findings Obesity has become a difficult problem to control in the United States. American culture is known for unhealthy and supersized meals everywhere in America, that leads to bad nutritional decisions. The relationship between obesity risks relates to the community level risk factors, especially how the society is built and social activities work inside communities and across racial ethnic groups. According to Kirby (2012) Obesity is related to race and place “The US obesity epidemic has disproportionately affected certain racial and ethnic minority groups” (Kirby, 2012,p.3) About 50% of African American women are overweight compared with only 33% of white women. (Kirby, 2012).
Problems Associated with Race, Place, and Obesity
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The dominance of obesity has escalated over the past few decades. Now obesity is the most public health problem in the United States. More than one-third of adults over the age of 20 are overweight (Kirby, 2012). Kirby posted that “ Obesity and sedentary lifestyle are risk factors for a variety of chronic conditions and are leading causes of premature mortality and years of life lost” (p.3). According to Kirby (2012) obesity is expensive to treat. The researchers discovered that the yearly medical cost is almost 10% of the whole medical budget, the public health spent $147 billion in 2008 on obesity alone (Kirby, 2008). Results show that African American percentage of being obese was 36.1% followed by Hispanics 28.7% and white was 24.5%. The outcomes are steady with the studies done before, also the results showed correlation with obesity and racial/ethnicity community characteristics. (Kirby,
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.
Evidence of Disparity Obesity in African-American women is rising at exponential rates, but no one is showing it any importance. Over the past couple years, obesity has increased in the African-American community among black females. Below are some statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of Minority Health (OMH) that reveal high rates of obesity in African Americans: • In 2015, African American women were 1.4 times as likely to be obese as non- Hispanic whites. • As of 2015, the percentage of African-American women 20 years of age and over who are obese equals 56.5%. That is a 29% increase from the percentage from 2011-2014, which equaled 44.2%.
Lazarou & Kouta (2010) define obesity as “a chronic metabolic disease, considered to be one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease”, and state that hypertension, atherosclerosis and type two diabetes have also been shown to be more likely in people with obesity (p. 641). These adult health problems have now become commonplace amongst children and youth today (Tuckwood, 2012). With obesity being diagnosed at earlier ages, prevention becomes increasingly difficult; personal habits are harder to break, health risks are more serious, and the likelihood of living with obesity in adulthood is significantly higher. Fifty percent of children who are obese will become obese adults (Lazarou & Kouta, 2010).
To sum it up, obesity is terrible and deadly disease that is affecting many of our youths today. It is caused by many different things, and has a lot of negative health effects. But, there are plenty of ways to fix this epidemic, both at home and as a whole. As a nation United, America has overcome many challenges and struggles, and this is simply another one that can be
Childhood to adolescent obesity in America is becoming an over-whelming issue. Most schools have decided that physical education isn’t critical due to budget cuts and the increased pressure to excel in standardized tests. One out of three children in the U.S. is over-weight or obese according to the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. I believe that childhood obesity is the result of lack of exercise and poor diet due to a fast-paced lifestyle. Junk food is attractive for many reasons including price, taste, and convenience.
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.
The issue is childhood obesity, and it is only accelerating as a percentage of children in both America and all western nations of the world. Childhood Obesity is an issue relevant to all who consider themselves part of American society and it has profound adverse effects economically, physically for those afflicted with the issue, and mentally for those who live an obese childhood or within the family unit of a household with at least one obese child. The scope of the issue is massive and the impact of the consequences dire in many accounts. There is hope to reverse course and change the way of American-western living, and it starts with understanding the size and
Obesity in the United States has been increasingly cited as a major health issue in recent decades, and is one of the highest in the world. Obesity rates have increased for all population groups in the United States over the last several decades. Between 1986 and 2000, the prevalence of severe obesity quadrupled from one in two hundred Americans to one in fifty. Extreme obesity in adults increased by a factor of five, from one in two thousand to one in four hundred. There have been similar increases seen in children and adolescents, with the prevalence of overweight in pediatric age groups nearly tripling over the same period.
The United States is suffering from an obesity epidemic and the problem is not going away any time soon. Why? For starters, we have become a nation obsessed with instant gratification. We no longer have to walk to the video store, we can order Net Flix, which comes in the mail and all you have to do is mail it back when you are done! So instead of burning 30 calories by walking a few blocks to Block Buster, we become couch potatoes.
Proposal: How can we solve the problem of childhood obesity? A child is considered obese when their weight is twenty percent more than than the ideal weight for their sex, age, and height (University of Michigan). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2012, eighteen percent of children ages six to eleven were obese and twenty-one percent of adolescents ages twelve to nineteen were obese (Childhood Obesity Facts). In 2007 study of 40,000 children, the Food Research and Action Center found that “Obesity rates increased by 10 percent for all U.S. children 10- to 17-years old between 2003 and 2007, but by 23 percent during the same time period for low-income children,” (Relationship).
As the frequency of obesity decreases, the medical bills will also dwindle. In 2008, the Center for Disease Control stated that an average of $147 billion dollars was spent on overweight individuals. Instead of feeding money to the obese, funds can assist an actual epidemic, not just a self-inflicted issue. Doctors claim eating healthy, automatically results in healthier habits such as an increase in exercise. Instead of counting pizza slices, consumers will begin counting miles, releasing endorphins that make them tolerable.
Research statistics prove that today’s children and adolescents are, in fact, “fatter” and less healthy than previous generations. Obesity is measured by body mass index (BMI). A child with a BMI at or above the 95th percentile is considered to be obese. According to the National Center for Health Statistics (2014), nearly 17% of children aged 2-19 were obese in 2012, a 12% increase over the course of forty years. Physicians, parents, and educators alike are equally concerned about this frightening rise in childhood obesity.
Obesity is a major problem in the United States, and with all the special privileges given to its people, America has become very lazy. With portion sizes rising and physical activity decreasing, it is easy to see how the rates on obesity has risen over the years in America. Obesity is a major problem that needs to be resolved because it affects all people of every gender, age, and race are at risk of being obese. Obesity rates in America have nearly doubled rather tripled within the last twenty years due to the many privileges that the American people have before us. Something must be done to overcome decrease the
Paula, Elle. " Fast Food and Childhood Obesity in America."LIVESTRONG.COM. Leaf Group, 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
“Approximately 12.7 million, or 17 percent, of children and adolescents are obese. Unhealthy weight gain due to poor diet and also lack of exercise is responsible for over 300,000 deaths each year. Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise” (Aacap.org). Similarly, statistics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2011-2014 discovered that “prevalence of obesity among U.S. youth was 17.0% in 2011–2014. Overall, the prevalence of obesity among preschool-aged children (2–5 years) (8.9%) was lower than among school-aged children (6–11 years)