obesity 3

Childhood Obesity

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Childhood obesity is an issue that affects most children in most countries. The issue has its causes and effects, as well as the preventive measures that can be taken to prevent the condition. This paper aims to analyze both the scientific and analytical perspectives of inquiry of the issue. Below are the research questions that will guide the study:

For the first level, what are the epidemiological issues, affected body systems, genetic level, and biological issues caused by childhood obesity?

For the second level, what are the economic issues, economic theories, statistical facts, and statistical processes that are caused by childhood obesity?

Scientific Perspective of Inquiry

Childhood obesity contains epidemiological issues, and it has been under investigation for a long time. High rates of childhood obesity have been linked to maternal obesity (Robinson, 2017). In most cases, if the mother is obese, the child will start showing signs of obesity within three years of age. Also, nutrition content given to the child matters. If the child eats more foods rich in calories and sugars, they may develop into obese adults. About a third of children are affected by childhood obesity in the U.S., 22.8% are aged between 2 and 5 years, 34.3% are 6-11 years, 34.5% are 12-19 years. It shows that the prevalence of the condition increases with age increase (Kumar & Kelly, 2017).

Childhood obesity contains a lot of psychological effects due to the issue. For obese children, parents need to be cautious and take care of their children if they face some of the following challenges. Obese children may face self-esteem issues because the issue is not just a physical problem. Children often face pressure because they want to look beautiful or of perfect shape, and with an obese body, their self-esteem may fall. The children tend to compare themselves with others, and research shows that obese children have lower self-esteem compared to other children. Low self-esteem can cause depression for them because they tend to undermine themselves, and because of the reaction, they receive from their fellow students in school. Also, childhood obesity causes behavioral changes whereby anger is either internalized or externalized. Obese children have been found to perform poorly in school compared to other children, probably because of the stress and pressure they receive. A few of the students may want to be friends with an obese individual because of the peer pressure that exists in schools. Therefore, parents should be available for their children and try to seek interventions to help their children. For example, parents can regulate the eating of the children and avoid giving them foods that contribute to obesity, such as junk food.

Childhood obesity is a risky issue and can cause mortality if not correctly handled. Some of the causes of obesity include medication side effects, metabolism, hormonal imbalance, or other problems. Obesity causes an impact on the body system, and some of the affected systems include the respiratory system and sleeping, digestive system, cardiovascular, immune, and musculoskeletal systems. Sleeping may be impacted when a person is unable to breathe at night when sleeping. Also, the digestive system can be affected due to eating disorders or gallbladder disease.

Moreover, obese children tend to have heart problems because of blocked arteries and veins. A person is said to be obese if they have a BMI greater than 30. For those who are between 25 and 29, they are considered to be overweight and not obese (Miller, 2019).

Chronic energy imbalance causes childhood obesity. If a child consistently consumes high-calorie foods and drinks, they are likely to develop the issue, which forms the cellular level. An “obesogenic” environment has been found to increase the prevalence of obesity in children because they have access to high-calorie foods but lack access to physical exercises that can burn the calories (Robinson, 2017). As childhood obesity can be a genetic inheritance from parent to child, it is also affected by environmental factors. If a parent is overweight, likely, the child will also develop the same issue because of genetics. An inheritance pattern may cause a change in one gene. For example, the MC4R gene is usually affected. It is the gene involved in the encoding of melanocortin 4 receptors (Paolini et al., 2016). The changes that can affect the normal functioning of the gene are not found in many obese children. The affected children tend to eat more because of the hunger that comes most of the time. Due to too much eating, they develop obesity.

The biological issue that is most important is that the human body is designed in a way that it never wants to lose weight nor feel hungry. Therefore, when a person is hungry, the brain releases chemicals (neurotransmitters), which produce a feeling of pleasure (Miller, 2019). When a person is hungry, they take food, which is digested to conduct different functions. The sugars are meant to produce energy, and if there is no enough food in the body, it digests the excess fats, which causes weight loss. Therefore, overeating is the biological cause of obesity.

Analytical Perspective of Inquiry

A lot of money is spent on treatment and medication for obese children. The medical cost is estimated to be $209.7 billion for obesity (Spieker & Pyzocha, 2016). The children need to be taken care of by their caregivers, which involves a lot of money. Also, as a child develops to be an obese adult, they tend to be affected in their job areas because of absenteeism. The junk food industry benefits in the business because most children with working parents tend to provide their children with junk food because they have no time to cook at home. Also, as parents try to intervene for their children and start purchasing vegetables and healthy foods, the prices increase, therefore affecting their purchase rate. Therefore, as the economy attempts to stabilize, also people tend to follow the trend.

An economic policy that exists is that as the price of unhealthy foods decreases, the prices of the healthy ones increase. The reason is that the unhealthy foods industry has reduced the prices for their products to ensure that they reach a broad audience. Even low-income earners can afford to purchase the foods for their children. Children like sugary foods, which is what the food industry provides them. It is more business-oriented and does not care about the health of the children. They advertise the foods by putting labels that lie about the health benefits and low calories contained in the foods to attract customers. The healthy foods industry increases the cost of their products because when people realize the health impacts of cheap, unhealthy foods, they rush to buy healthy foods as a remedy.

Childhood obesity is considered to be a worldwide epidemic, and it affects everyone from around the world. Most of the affected countries are developing ones. It is estimated that in the year 2010, there were 42 million obese children in the world as a whole, whereby among them, 35 million of them were from developing countries (Aranceta-Bartrina & Pérez-Rodrigo, 2016). It implies that only 7 million of the obese children were from developed countries. This shows that developed countries have more control over the childhood obesity issue, and they have managed to control it. Over recent years, the rate of childhood obesity has decreased because of the growth in the socioeconomic status of countries.

The best statistical process utilized in most analyses is a systematic review that provides more insight and understanding of the issue at hand. The research materials and the statistics offered from WHO helps understand the trend of childhood obesity in the entire world and how to help solve the issue.

In conclusion, childhood obesity is an issue affecting many people in society. It is an issue that causes many health problems as well as psychological and mental problems. Parents must ensure that their children eat healthily and exercise to help prevent obesity. The statistics show that the issue is slowly decreasing due to the increase in the socio-economic status. Furthermore, awareness has been developed by healthcare professionals on the ways pathophysiology and epidemiology of the illness, as well as how it can be prevented. Therefore, even though the epidemic is still affecting people, it is not so much like the cases in the years before.

References

Aranceta-Bartrina, J., & Pérez-Rodrigo, C. (2016). Determinants of childhood obesity: ANIBES study. Nutricion hospitalaria, 33(4), 17-20.

Kumar, S., & Kelly, A. S. (2017, February). Review of childhood obesity: from epidemiology, etiology, and comorbidities to clinical assessment and treatment. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 92, No. 2, pp. 251-265). Elsevier.

Miller, G. D. (2019). Appetite regulation: hormones, peptides, and neurotransmitters and their role in obesity. American journal of lifestyle medicine, 13(6), 586-601.

Paolini, B., Maltese, P. E., Del Ciondolo, I., Tavian, D., Missaglia, S., Ciuoli, C., ... & Pompucci, G. (2016). Prevalence of mutations in LEP, LEPR, and MC4R genes in individuals with severe obesity. Genet Mol Res, 15(3), 10-4238.

Robinson, S. M. (2017). Preventing childhood obesity: Early‐life messages from epidemiology. Nutrition bulletin, 42(3), 219-225.

Spieker, E. A., & Pyzocha, N. (2016). Economic impact of obesity. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, 43(1), 83-95.