Physical Activity and Obesity, Essay Example

Childhood obesity continues to grow at a phenomenal rate in the United States, and impact of behaviors causing obesity among children lead to advanced medical deficiencies later in life.  Today, childhood obesity “affects about 10 million children each year and has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. About 5 percent to 25 percent of children and teens are obese, and the average is increasing” (Berry, 2009, p. 30).  This is a startling statistic given the fact that less than ten years ago the obesity level was never as high as it is today.  Children have a number of factors that cause them to become obese during the various stages of human development, which include unhealthy eating behavior, reduced physical activity, and prevalent obesity within the home, most notably from one or both of the child’s parents.  These statistics demand that pediatricians understand these figures and the causes of obesity to better impact the lives of children and improve their overall quality of health.

To begin, it is important to understand the definition of physical activity and the recommended amount of physical activity for children within this specific age group.  Scientists have defined physical activity to imply that it is any activity that involves any planned or spontaneous bodily movement while using larger muscle groups, or multiple groups of minor muscles during the activity (Procter et al., 2008, p. 324).  The Department of Health and Ageing in Australia (2007) published a list of public health recommendations that specified the suggested amount of physical activity for adolescents should be “at least 60 minutes (and up to several hours) of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity every day” (par. 1).  Physical activity is extremely important to ensure the body remains in a healthy state and can function correctly.  The chemical benefits of physical activity allow people to burn calories and protein for energy, which in turn, helps keep the body weight under control.  Without the proper amount of recommended physical activity, the body does not use as much protein to function, thus causing the protein to build up as excess fat inside the body.  Fat can be beneficial for the body to ensure proper insulation to regulate body heat and body cooling, but too much fat causes obesity, reduces the passageways of the arteries and can cause substantial long-term defects inside the human body.

The specific amount of physical activity can be validated by another scholarly source.  Saris et al. (2003) performed a study to monitor and record the amount of physical activity levels within children of the prepubescent age range.  This study showed results that most children are not engaging in enough physical activity to remain healthy and prevent obesity if the time frame is less than 60 minutes per day, every day.  They also concluded that most children are actually performing around 25% below the amount that a child should be undertaking within this age group (p. 110).  Due to the laws of nature, it is important to understand the societal impact that causes children of different sex to partake in appropriate physical activity levels.

With this in mind, it is also important to notice that there is a large difference between behaviors of male to female children when it relates to physical activity.  In the same study performed by Saris et al. (2003), results shows that 72% of male children reported engaging in rigorous physical activities, while only 54% of female children reported engaging in such activities (p. 110).  This is a startling figure that shows that females are more likely to withhold from physical activity than that of males.  This can be attributed to a number of causes, such as culture’s definition of how ladies and little girls are supposed to behave lacking strong physical competitive behaviors.  It is interesting to note that while only 54% of female children reported engaging in vigorous physical activity, there are strong tendencies for girls, especially African American girls, to engage in less physical activity than males, and therefore, are more likely to experience childhood obesity (Franzini et al., 2009, p. 571).  As female children become, they tend to become much more self-conscious about their bodies as they notice the many changes their bodies are going through.  The benefits of physical activity are very clear, yet still there are a number of various factors that cause children to not partake in proper amounts of physical activity.

There are a number of reasons why the physical activity levels among children are reduced.  The elimination of sports from a child’s life can be a factor among reduced levels, which can be caused from a poor playing relationship among peers or a lack of playing time from the child’s coach.  Perhaps the child’s lifestyle maintains a rather large amount of time dedicated to the thrills of video games or viewing television.  Marshall et al. (2004) performed a study to determine the overall impact of watching television upon the child’s overall body weight.  This study showed that there were substantially significant results that made it clear that there is a direct relationship between viewing television and obesity among children; however, the authors stated that the relationship did not include figures prominent enough to show clinical relevance (p. 1244).  Regardless, this study shows that there is a relationship between obesity and viewing television, playing video games, or sitting in front of a computer screen that are hard to argue.  The Department of Health and Ageing in Australia (2007) recommends that “children and young people should not spend more than 2 hours a day using electronic media for entertainment (e.g. computer games, Internet, TV), particularly during daylight hours” (par. 1).  These recommendations make it clear that television and any other sedentary activity make it very difficult for a child to reduce or prevent obesity due to limited physical activity.

As previously stated, children have a number of causes for becoming obese, which also includes unhealthy eating behavior.  “A child’s diet can influence their risk of being overweight and eventually becoming obese.  High calorie foods such as fast foods, baked goods and vending machine snacks contribute to an increase in one’s weight. Soft drinks, candy and desserts also promote a weight increase” (Berry, 2009, p. 36).  A well-balanced diet is very beneficial to giving the body the nutrients it needs in order to function correctly and burn the appropriate levels of protein and sugars that fuel the body.  Religious beliefs and chemical imbalances within children can cause them to not be able to eat certain types of foods that are available for lunch in school, resulting to them choosing alternative unhealthy foods to satisfy their hunger.  Several more of these natural or cultural causes can impact the balanced diet of the child.  In addition, a child may simply not like a food and refuses to eat it, therefore taking away from the child’s amount of a particular food group and reducing a healthy diet.

A third contributing factor that can lead to childhood obesity is the overall living environment of the child’s household.  The environment with which the child is allowed to grow is a strong cause for physical fitness or obesity.  More often than not, children whose parents are obese are typically going to follow in a similar poor lifestyle or eating behaviors as one or both of the unhealthy parents (Saris et al., 2003, p. 102).  Children eat what their parents eat, perform the same down-time behaviors as the parents perform, and overall maintain a similar lifestyle as the parents or guardians that they look up to.  As previously mentioned, children must have a greater amount of physical activity than adults in order to reduce or prevent obesity.  If a child engages in the same behaviors or lifestyle choices as those of his or her parents, it is arguably true that the child will likely become as obese, if not much more so, as the parents.  Therefore, the responsibility of substantial lifestyle changes lands greatly upon the parents and pediatricians to help reduce or prevent obesity within children.

The pediatric impact that this issue raises causes many discrepancies among medical professionals.  First of all, there is an international discrepancy among professionals as to the exact definition of an obese child.  Many professionals use the Body Mass Index to conduct such definitions.  “In the United States, the 85th and 95th centiles of body mass index for age and sex based on nationally representative survey data have been recommended as cut off points to identify overweight and obesity” (Cole et al., 2000, p. 1).  Besides the international definition of childhood obesity, the use of medication on children to help control the problems has also become a point of discrepancy in the medical field.  According to additional research, “the risks of taking the medications that help weight loss are still unknown, and their effects on adolescents are still questioned. They also should not be used as a replacement to eat healthier or stay active” (Berry, 2009, p. 36).  Yet still, pediatricians prescribe some medications to help alleviate the effects of childhood obesity, without actually helping solve the problems.  The debate in the medical community to provide proper treatment continues to exist and must come to a conclusion in order to help improve the overall health of our youth.

Today, there is a large problem of childhood obesity in the United States, as well as the world, like never before.  Children would much rather stay sedentary and view television or play video games instead of engaging in tough, physically demanding and competitive activity.  The lifestyles of obese parents are also typically repeated by the lifestyle choices of their children, which can cause children to become as obese or even surpassing the specific levels of their parents.  Also, a number of factors are attributed to the poor diet of children that can cause the rather large consumption of cholesterol, fatty foods, and sugars that are unhealthy for the body at such high levels.  Scholarly evidence has shown that 72% of male children engage in physical activity while 54% of female children do the same.  Overall, roughly 25% of children are obese in the United States, and there is no substantial evidence shown to suggest that this figure will reduce in the near future.  The dangers of childhood obesity can cause extreme health risks, such as high blood pressure, a development of diabetes, or severe damage to the cardiovascular system.  Furthermore, discrepancies over definition and treatment of childhood obesity must come to a close in order for pediatricians to properly work to improve the health condition of our youth, and alleviate a large portion of long-term health concerns.

References

Berry, J. (2009). Childhood obesity on the rise. New York Amsterdam News, 100(30), 30-36. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.muohio.edu

Cole, T.J., Bellizzi, M.C., Flegal, K.M., & Dietz, W.H. (2000). Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey. BMJ, 320(1240), 1-6.

Franzini, L., Elliott, M., Cuccaro, P., Schuster, M., Gilliland, M., Grunbaum, J., et al. (2009). Influences of Physical and Social Neighborhood Environments on Children’s Physical Activity and Obesity. American Journal of Public Health, 99(2), 271-278.

Marshall, S.J., Biddle, S.J.H., Gorely, T., Cameron, N., & Murdey, I. (2004). Relationships between media use, body fatness and physical activity in children and youth: a meta-analysis. International Journal of Obesity, 28, 1238–1246.

Procter, K., Clarke, G., Ransley, J., & Cade, J. (2008). Micro-level analysis of childhood obesity, diet, physical activity, residential socioeconomic and social capital variables: where are the obesogenic environments in Leeds?. Area, 40(3), 323-340.

Saris, W.H.M., Blair, S.N., van Baak, M.A., Eaton, S.B., & Davies, P.S.W. (2003). How much physical activity is enough to prevent unhealthy weight gain? outcome of the IASO 1st stock conference and consensus statement. Obesity Review, 4, 101-114.