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1

Chronic & Emerging Conditions #1: Obesity and Unhealthy Weight Management

Adelin Dupont

Florida National University

Health Promotion & Role Development in Adv. Nursing Practice

Dr. Nora Hernandez-Pupo

March 13, 2026

Chronic and Emerging Conditions #1: Obesity and Unhealthy Weight Management

Obesity has become one of the most implicated crises of sickness in society that has aggressively attacked people regardless of their demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic boundaries. Obesity is the non-cosmetic concern that is multifactorial in its causes and risk elements, including comorbidities in life-threatening ailments, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovickneuroparel000324. Marginalized groups are particularly affected by the disease, and this adds a further burden to the unequal burden of health inequity in addition to placing excessive demands on the overall healthcare systems of nations worldwide. The capacity to determine the level of obesity at a global, national, and local level will be helpful in providing culturally responsive health promotion interventions based on evidence.

Global Relevance of Obesity

Obesity has reached alarming numbers as regards prevalence rate in the world, and it is a clear sign of an outbreak in poor health, with no boundaries. In the World Health Organization (2024) statistics of obesity in 2022, a total of 8 people in the world (nearly one billion) were demonstrated to have had obesity, including 650 million adults, 340 million adolescents, and 39 million children. The levels of obesity have increased not only over the last three decades (adults), but also fourfold during the last three decades (adolescents), and these are the manifestations of a radical change in the epidemiology with regard to the lifestyles that are increasingly sedentary, the popularity of ultra-processed foods, and socioeconomic inequalities in the cost of healthy eating. The inclinations can be observed at both high- and mid-income, as well as low-income countries, and indicate that obesity is not a problem of the developed world only anymore, but rather a task that all countries should engage in.

The socioeconomic burden of obesity around the globe is also staggering. The World Obesity Federation estimates that the direct healthcare costs, the number of missed days at work, and preterm morbidity and mortality costs because of obesity will require the world to pay over 4 trillion dollars every year in 2035 (2023). There are also high quality-of-life loss, stigmatization, and psychological health issues related to cases of obesity, especially among the youth. The consequences of these multidimensional effects are the urgent necessity to use the global health promotion models, which address the structural factors of obesity instead of the limited approach that presupposes the empowerment of people and their welfare by means of a limited scope of behavioral models.

The Relevance of Obesity in the United States

The obesity level in the United States is on the increase. The article by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022) asserts that over 2 out of 5 American adults or 41.9 percent of the adults are already reported to be suffering in clinical obesity and 9.2 percent of adults are severely obese. The distribution is skewed 49.9 is the highest among the non-Hispanic Black adults, followed by Hispanic adults at 45.6 and non-Hispanic White adults at 41.4 (CDC, 2022). These racial and ethnic differences show the power of the impact of structural inequities, such as the unequal access to healthy food, recreation facilities healthy environment, and quality medical services. These tendencies are not supposed to spare children; according to the recent surveys by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 19.7% of children and adolescents aged 2-19 are obese in the United States (Hales et al., 2020).

The economic cost of obesity in the United States is also significantly high. The estimates provided by CDC suggest that annually, medical spending attributable to obesity is merely astronomical, at 173 billion, and obese individuals pay an additional 1,861 dollars out-of-pocket each year, on hospitals is compared to people of normal weight (CDC, 2022). The Leading Health Indicator in the national agenda provided by Healthy People 2030 is obesity reduction, which is associated with a federal realization that to overturn this epidemic, the policies regarding systemic health promotion are required in terms of supporting the consumption of healthy food, adequate access to healthy food, and behavioral health programs at the community level.

Local Obesity Significance of Obesity in Miami, Florida

The Miami-Dade County and the South Florida region, in general, show not only the tendencies in the country but also the difficulties of the locality in addressing the issue of obesity. The Florida Department of Health (2023) states that nearly a quarter of adult Florida residents are reported to be obese in the state, and it is even more among low-income and minority age groups. Within Miami-Dade County, in which about 70 percent of the population consists of Hispanic residents, the cultural patterns of the vast majority and the dietary environment gaps come into conflict with the absence of any physical activities during leisure times, that make the risk of obesity. Obesity and chronic diseases, in particular, have been listed among the top health needs as the percentage of residents living in lower-income zip codes is exposed to fast-food restaurants and food deserts at a grossly disproportional level compared to the high-income ones (Miami-Dade County Health Department, 2022).

This is one of the shortcomings of children in Miami-Dade. The Florida Youth Tobacco Survey and other associated surveillance data indicate that the count of children of school-going age in the county who are obese is high, particularly among black or Hispanic children. The Jackson Health System and the local health centers have already started developing certain programs in the community aimed at the prevention of obesity, and still need to address gaps in reach, funding, and cultural adjustment. The sheer population density, economic imbalances, and cultural diversities within Miami present a number of threats and opportunities to particular health promotion programs.

It is precisely due to the omnipresence of the epidemic of obesity, which is reflected in global statistics, national health statistics, and the streets and schools of Miami-Dade, that the choice of strong and multilevel health promotion programs should be considered. The management of obesity is neither an individual endeavour that can yield any success since it requires a combination of interventions to modify the built environment, institutional burden on healthy diets and physical activities, as well as engagement of the community to promote their health. Perhaps, by establishing evidence-based programs, understanding the cultural, socio-economic, and geographic realities of communities, and being cognizant of the colossal level of death and financial resources used in this state across all levels of society, the practitioners of the field of public health can start to lower the overwhelming number of deaths and financial resources spent on this condition.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Adult obesity facts. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult-obesity-facts/index.html

Florida Department of Health. (2023). Florida behavioral risk factor surveillance system: Obesity data 2023. Florida Department of Health. https://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-data/behavioral-risk-factor-surveillance-system-brfss/

Hales, C. M., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2020). Prevalence of obesity and severe obesity among adults: United States, 2017–2018. NCHS Data Brief, (360), 1–8. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db360.htm

Miami-Dade County Health Department. (2022). Community health assessment and improvement plan 2022–2025. Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County. Source: Florida Department of Health (.gov) https://share.google/EnnKQqO2gZwskdy96

World Health Organization. (2024). Obesity and overweight (Fact sheet No. 311). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

World Obesity Federation. (2023). World obesity atlas 2023. World Obesity Federation. https://www.worldobesity.org/resources/resource-library/world-obesity-atlas-2023

1

Chronic & Emerging Conditions #1: Obesity and Unhealthy Weight Management

Adelin Dupont

Florida National University

Health Promotion & Role Development in Adv. Nursing Practice

Dr. Nora Hernandez-Pupo

March 13, 2026

Chronic and Emerging Conditions #1: Obesity and Unhealthy Weight Management

Obesity has become one of the most implicated crises of sickness in society that has aggressively attacked people regardless of their demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic boundaries. Obesity is the non-cosmetic concern that is multifactorial in its causes and risk elements, including comorbidities in life-threatening ailments, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovickneuroparel000324. Marginalized groups are particularly affected by the disease, and this adds a further burden to the unequal burden of health inequity in addition to placing excessive demands on the overall healthcare systems of nations worldwide. The capacity to determine the level of obesity at a global, national, and local level will be helpful in providing culturally responsive health promotion interventions based on evidence.

Global Relevance of Obesity

Obesity has reached alarming numbers as regards prevalence rate in the world, and it is a clear sign of an outbreak in poor health, with no boundaries. In the World Health Organization (2024) statistics of obesity in 2022, a total of 8 people in the world (nearly one billion) were demonstrated to have had obesity, including 650 million adults, 340 million adolescents, and 39 million children. The levels of obesity have increased not only over the last three decades (adults), but also fourfold during the last three decades (adolescents), and these are the manifestations of a radical change in the epidemiology with regard to the lifestyles that are increasingly sedentary, the popularity of ultra-processed foods, and socioeconomic inequalities in the cost of healthy eating. The inclinations can be observed at both high- and mid-income, as well as low-income countries, and indicate that obesity is not a problem of the developed world only anymore, but rather a task that all countries should engage in.

The socioeconomic burden of obesity around the globe is also staggering. The World Obesity Federation estimates that the direct healthcare costs, the number of missed days at work, and preterm morbidity and mortality costs because of obesity will require the world to pay over 4 trillion dollars every year in 2035 (2023). There are also high quality-of-life loss, stigmatization, and psychological health issues related to cases of obesity, especially among the youth. The consequences of these multidimensional effects are the urgent necessity to use the global health promotion models, which address the structural factors of obesity instead of the limited approach that presupposes the empowerment of people and their welfare by means of a limited scope of behavioral models.

The Relevance of Obesity in the United States

The obesity level in the United States is on the increase. The article by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022) asserts that over 2 out of 5 American adults or 41.9 percent of the adults are already reported to be suffering in clinical obesity and 9.2 percent of adults are severely obese. The distribution is skewed 49.9 is the highest among the non-Hispanic Black adults, followed by Hispanic adults at 45.6 and non-Hispanic White adults at 41.4 (CDC, 2022). These racial and ethnic differences show the power of the impact of structural inequities, such as the unequal access to healthy food, recreation facilities healthy environment, and quality medical services. These tendencies are not supposed to spare children; according to the recent surveys by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 19.7% of children and adolescents aged 2-19 are obese in the United States (Hales et al., 2020).

The economic cost of obesity in the United States is also significantly high. The estimates provided by CDC suggest that annually, medical spending attributable to obesity is merely astronomical, at 173 billion, and obese individuals pay an additional 1,861 dollars out-of-pocket each year, on hospitals is compared to people of normal weight (CDC, 2022). The Leading Health Indicator in the national agenda provided by Healthy People 2030 is obesity reduction, which is associated with a federal realization that to overturn this epidemic, the policies regarding systemic health promotion are required in terms of supporting the consumption of healthy food, adequate access to healthy food, and behavioral health programs at the community level.

Local Obesity Significance of Obesity in Miami, Florida

The Miami-Dade County and the South Florida region, in general, show not only the tendencies in the country but also the difficulties of the locality in addressing the issue of obesity. The Florida Department of Health (2023) states that nearly a quarter of adult Florida residents are reported to be obese in the state, and it is even more among low-income and minority age groups. Within Miami-Dade County, in which about 70 percent of the population consists of Hispanic residents, the cultural patterns of the vast majority and the dietary environment gaps come into conflict with the absence of any physical activities during leisure times, that make the risk of obesity. Obesity and chronic diseases, in particular, have been listed among the top health needs as the percentage of residents living in lower-income zip codes is exposed to fast-food restaurants and food deserts at a grossly disproportional level compared to the high-income ones (Miami-Dade County Health Department, 2022).

This is one of the shortcomings of children in Miami-Dade. The Florida Youth Tobacco Survey and other associated surveillance data indicate that the count of children of school-going age in the county who are obese is high, particularly among black or Hispanic children. The Jackson Health System and the local health centers have already started developing certain programs in the community aimed at the prevention of obesity, and still need to address gaps in reach, funding, and cultural adjustment. The sheer population density, economic imbalances, and cultural diversities within Miami present a number of threats and opportunities to particular health promotion programs.

It is precisely due to the omnipresence of the epidemic of obesity, which is reflected in global statistics, national health statistics, and the streets and schools of Miami-Dade, that the choice of strong and multilevel health promotion programs should be considered. The management of obesity is neither an individual endeavour that can yield any success since it requires a combination of interventions to modify the built environment, institutional burden on healthy diets and physical activities, as well as engagement of the community to promote their health. Perhaps, by establishing evidence-based programs, understanding the cultural, socio-economic, and geographic realities of communities, and being cognizant of the colossal level of death and financial resources used in this state across all levels of society, the practitioners of the field of public health can start to lower the overwhelming number of deaths and financial resources spent on this condition.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Adult obesity facts. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult-obesity-facts/index.html

Florida Department of Health. (2023). Florida behavioral risk factor surveillance system: Obesity data 2023. Florida Department of Health. https://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-data/behavioral-risk-factor-surveillance-system-brfss/

Hales, C. M., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2020). Prevalence of obesity and severe obesity among adults: United States, 2017–2018. NCHS Data Brief, (360), 1–8. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db360.htm

Miami-Dade County Health Department. (2022). Community health assessment and improvement plan 2022–2025. Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County. Source: Florida Department of Health (.gov) https://share.google/EnnKQqO2gZwskdy96

World Health Organization. (2024). Obesity and overweight (Fact sheet No. 311). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

World Obesity Federation. (2023). World obesity atlas 2023. World Obesity Federation. https://www.worldobesity.org/resources/resource-library/world-obesity-atlas-2023