Prevalence of Childhood Obesity, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Once characterized as the problems of wealthy countries, the prevalence of obesity amongst adults has risen exponentially across the globe. According to data produced by the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2014 approximately “1.9 billion adults… over the age of 18, were overweight. Of these over 600 million were obese” (WHO.org). This number represents 13 percent of the world adult population. Defining obesity is of paramount important in order to adequately address the current epidemic Obesity is defined as “abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health” (WHO.org). Due to the effects of globalization and the spread of new techniques in the production of food, coupled with the propagation of the McWorld, a steady rise of obesity rates and in low and middle income countries by that we mean least developing and developing countries. When looking at data and studies conducted by various organizations, evidence suggests a 30 year rise in childhood obesity particularly in the United States. The focus of this research is the prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States, which to those in the medical profession, propels children and adolescents down the path to health problems associated with adults, for example diabetes and high blood pressure. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) “the percentage of children ages 6-11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7 percent in 1980 to nearly 18 per cent in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12-19 years who were obese increased from 5 percent to nearly 21 percent over the same period” (cdc.gov). Childhood obesity is such a dynamic issue because it shares similar etiologies to obesity amongst the adult population, and it manifests when a child exceeds the normal weight for his or her age and height. For the remainder of this paper, we will concentrate of the factors that contribute to childhood obesity, factors such as the prevalence of food deserts, differences in price of nutritious foods, the over consumption of carbonated drinks, and the lack of physical activity children engage in. Advertising and social marketing play an integral role in promoting unhealthy eating behaviors in addition to parental negligence, both of which must be addressed.

Correlation Between Food Deserts and Childhood Obesity

Environmental factors in addition to social factors create so-called food deserts that foment conditions in which childhood obesity rates escalate in comparison to other locales. The consumption of both dietitian and doctor recommended foods has become eclipsed by the over availability of processed foods that are high in fats, salt, sugar and chemicals. The overconsumption of such foods has played a role in the incidence and prevalence of detrimental health effects like diabetes and obesity in adolescents. The central issue is not the availability of these foods, but rather the lack of access to nutritious food in rural, urban, and suburban areas inhabited by the socioeconomically disadvantaged. This situation has created the conditions necessary for ‘food deserts’ to manifest in addition to cheap meals that lack any nutritional value. Food desert is defined by Reisig and Hobbiss (2000) as geographic areas of relative exclusion where people experience physical and economic barriers to accessing affordable and healthy food options, especially fruits and vegetables (Shaw, 2006, p. 231). Such options are restricted or virtually nonexistent because there is a dearth of grocery stores that are within convenient traveling distance. According to a report compiled by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for U.S. Congress, approximately 2.3 million people, or approximately 2.2% of all households in the United States, reside more than a mile away from a grocery store or supermarket and/or do not own an automobile or convenient traveling modes (“Access,” 2009). Within urban contexts, residents often have access to public transportation, which removes the problem of distance to supermarkets, although economic factors have pushed grocery stores out of cities. As a result, supermarkets have come few and far between in both cities and the suburbs.

Taking into consideration both environmental factors and social factors, Burns et al. (2011) investigates how local food sources in various communities correlated with rising obesity rates in children and adolescents in various communities. The body mass index (BMI) of youths, according to the study, is linked with the type of local food sources that are available within a community. To establish a causal relationship between the quality and density of particular food sources, Burns et al. (2011) assessed how the local environment—meaning the environment, space, food resources, and infrastructure–affected the BMI of children from diverse ethnic backgrounds between four to eighteen years in various urban contexts. Nurses working from  local schools in respective communities measured the weight and height of a random sample of students that was quite large during the 2005-2006 school year. Burns et al. (2011) designed a database of the food sources available within a community and then categorized the foods by type. Deploying spatial diagnostics and regression analysis, the authors concluded that the built-in infrastructure and environment profoundly affected obesity rates amongst youths. The ubiquity and proximity of fast-food restaurants, sit-down restaurants, and convenience stories was linked to high levels of childhood obesity. Young students who came from an ethnic background and were socioeconomically disadvantaged and lived close to the aforementioned restaurants and stores had higher BMIs and consumed more unhealthy foods (Burns et al., 2011, p. 890). This study exhibits how food deserts continue to exacerbate the epidemic of childhood obesity

Fast Food Advertising and Marketing

Advertising and social marketing directed at young children is inherently exploitative, especially because children and adolescents retain the capacity to remember the content they are exposed to via commercials and advertisements. Children exposed to certain products will request of their parents to purchase certain items, which reveals how profoundly advertising impacts the purchasing decisions of parents. Chou et al. (2008) takes into account how persistent exposure to fast-food advertisements and marketing techniques running on television and on the internet profoundly influences the eating behaviors and habits of youths as well as obesity patterns. While it is virtually impossible to quantify the direct impact of exposure to fast-food advertisements because of parental oversight and influence, the authors of this study administered the Child-Young Adult National Longitudinal Survey of Youth created in 1979 in addition to the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of children to evaluate the  how fast-food advertising shown on television impacts both children and young adults and rates of obesity. The authors of this study conclude that implementing and enforcing a ban on fast-food advertisements and marketing techniques could significantly abate rates of childhood obesity for subjects in between the ages of three to eleven by an estimated twenty percent. In addition, incentives to completely get rid of/ban fast-food advertisements and thus abate the exposure of youths through means such as slashing tax deductibility retains the probability of yielding commensurate results(Chou et al., 2008, p. 599). Therefore, the causal relationship between fast-food advertisements and marketing strategies and their body weight figures prominently in how public policy if formed geared towards stemming the escalating rates of childhood obesity.

Food Prices: Healthy Food vs. Fast Food

Healthy food costs more money than fast food does, which is one reason why childhood obesity rates are noticeably higher in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. For marketing purposes, fast foods are actually cheaper than healthy foods, which is why low income parents tend to buy these foods as opposed to healthy foods. One study conducted by Hard School by Public Health (2009) concluded that a healthy diet costs person $1.50 more than less healthy diets comprised of fast foods. This finding was derived from a comprehensive analysis that compared prices of healthy diets and foods versus unhealthy diets. It is common for people to justify less healthy diets because healthier foods are so pricey in comparison, and this study provides the systematic evidence vis-a-vis a systematic assessment in which cost differences were characterized. This study involved a meta-analysis of 27 extant studies from 10 developed countries that had price data for certain foods in addition to less healthy versus healthy diets. The researchers then assessed the price differences per serving and per two hundred calories for certain types of foods. They also evaluated the prices differences per day and per two thousand calories (which is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommended calorie intake for the average adult) to assess overall diet patterns. Both prices per calorie and per serving were evaluated as a result of prices can fluctuate depending on the unit used for comparison. The researchers ascertained that healthier diets that included a lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish cost a lot more than unhealthy diets that included processed foods, refined grains, and meats did. The daily average costs of healthy foods per day is $1.50 more than less healthy foods.

Unhealthy diets most likely cost less due to the fact that food policies focus on the preparation of foods in high volume and that are inexpensive, which has resulted in a “complex network of farming, storage, transportation, processing, manufacturing, and marketing capabilities that favor sales of highly processed food products” in order to maximize products within the food industry (Harvard School of Public Health, 2013). Because of this grim reality, the researchers propose that devising similar infrastructure to bolster the production of healthy foods has the potential to boost the availability of healthier foods and thus curtail the prices of healthier diets.  Despite the fact that it is evident that healthier diets do indeed cost more, the price difference between healthy and unhealthy diets is actual smaller than people believe. $550 more per year for healthier diets represents a burden for some families, so nurses public health experts need to push for the passage of new policies that would aid in offsetting these approximated costs.

Overconsumption of Carbonated Drinks

2 out of 3 adults in addition to 1 out of every 3 youths in the U.S. are categorized as obese or overweight, which costs on approximated $190 billion annually because of health conditions related to obesity. Medical experts point to the escalating consumption of high-fructose drinks such as soda as a major contributor to this childhood obesity epidemic. A typical 20-ounce soda has between 15 and 18 teaspoons of fructose sugar which amounts to over 240 calories. A 64-ounce soda has more than 700 calories, and because the fructose is absorbed right away into the blood stream, soda consumers will not feel full as they would if they ate 700 calories worth of protein (Pan & Hu, 2011). As a result, they do not compensate for these soda calories by ingesting less. Beverage companies in the United States spend approximately $3.2 billion on marketing and advertising carbonated beverages, and approximately half billion dollars of that advertising targets youths between the ages of 2 and 17. Advertisers inundate youths on a quotidian basis with  hundreds of television  commercials  for beverages with high levels of sugar. The soda industry rebuffs any intimations that’s its advertising and products have any direct impact on childhood obesity. However, there is ample evidence that the consumption of soft drinks correlate with the degradation of   human health, especially because portion sizes continue to significantly rise in the past few decades. Sugar drinks are tied to medical conditions such as heart disease, obesity, gout, and diabetes (Pan & Hu, 2011). Ultimately, cutting out sugary, carbonated drinks out of their diet will aid people in controlling their weight and abating obesity rates at the macro level.

Lack of Physical Activity

Healthy behaviors such as regular physical activity and a healthy diet are of paramount importance to stemming the current obesity epidemic. According to the CDC (2015), children are recommended to do at least one hour of physical activity on a quotidian basis. Eating healthy and regular exercise is necessary for long-term health benefits in addition to the prevention of debilitating chronic illnesses such as heart disease and Type-2 diabetes. The community environment is important for cultivating a desire in children to engage in physical activity. A recent study of a large sample of 13,000 youths and young adults concluded that obese teenagers on average consumed fewer calories than their slimmer counterparts. Such a finding seems counter-intuitive, yet it points to the fact that an active lifestyle occupies a formative role in childhood obesity. Indeed, it supersedes concerns about calorie consumption, which sends the message to parents and society that an overweight child does not necessarily overeat or consume too many calories than is burned off. Rather, obese children need to be encouraged to engage in some form of exercise or physical activity on a quotidian basis.

Conclusion

The ubiquity of childhood obesity, which spawns a litany of negative ramifications as children develop and mature into adolescence and adulthood,  as it has been correlated with various chronic diseases. It has profoundly escalated within the past few decades globally and continues to pose a threat to tear society asunder.  Between 1980 and 2002, studies and meticulous research demonstrate that obesity among children and adolescents have increased by 17.1%, resulting in the germination of a handful of hypotheses to explain the epidemic. The majority of the corpus of literature mainly views diet and physical exercise as the main causes of obesity, especially because of the ubiquity of fast food restaurants and the high fat and fructose content in tasty desserts and foods children enjoy consuming frequently. Medical experts and public health officials also blame fast-food advertisements and social marketing ploys that results in youths and parents alike internalizing certain messages conveyed therein. Advertisements often target socioeconomically disadvantaged, minority communities that are more likely to consume in fast food products due to built in environmental factors and infrastructure contributing to the escalation of childhood obesity. In order to prevent further escalation, public policies pertaining to or addressing obesity in addition to social marketing strategies must take into consideration how the negative ramifications of childhood obesity will affect future generations. Moreover, parents of obese children have been increasing been rendered liable for criminal neglect, which has spawned contentious legal and political debates. Medical personnel must remain aware of the potential role that parental neglect may play in exacerbating their child or children’s escalating rates of obesity, contributing to the child’s obesity.

References

“Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences.” (2009). United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. Retrieved 10/26/2015 from http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/242675/ap036_1_.pdf

Burns, J.J, Goff, S., Karamian, G., Walsh, C., Hobby, L., and Garb, J. (2011). The relationship between local food sources and open space to body mass index in urban children. Public Health Reports, 126(6), 890-900.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Childhood Obesity Causes & Consequences. CDC. Retrieved October 26, 2015 from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/causes.html

Chou, S., Rashad, I., & Grossman, M. (2008). Fast-Food restaurant advertising on television and its influence on childhood obesity. Journal and Law and Economics, 51(4), 599-618.

“Food Desserts.” (2015). The Food Development Project. Retrieved October 25, 2015 from http://www.foodispower.org/food-deserts/

Grier, S.A., Mensinger, J., Huang, S.H., Kumanyika, S.K., and Stettler, N. (2007). Fast-Food marketing and children’s fast-food consumption: exploring parents’ influences in an ethnically diverse sample. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 26, 221-235.

Harvard School of Public Health. (2013). Eating healthy vs. unhealthy diet costs about $1.50 more per day. Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved October 26, 2015 from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/healthy-vs-unhealthy-diet-costs-1-50- more/

Knutson, J.F., Taber, S.M., Murray, A.J., Valles, N.L., & Koeppl, G. (2009). The role of care neglect and supervisor neglect in childhood obesity in a disadvantaged sample. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 35(5), 523-532.

O’Callaghan, T. (2010.). Is childhood obesity a symptom of neglect? TIME.com. Retrieved October 26, 2015, from http://healthland.time.com/2010/07/16/is-childhood-obesity-a-      symptom-of-neglect/

Pan, A. & Hu, F.B. (2011). Effects of carbohydrates on satiety: Differences between liquid and solid food. Current Opinion of Clinical Nutrition of Metabolic Care, 14. 385-90.

Sugarman, S.D. & Sandman, N. (2007). Fighting childhood obesity through performance-based regulation of the food industry. Duke Law Journal, 56(6), 1403-1490.