“The rise of childhood obesity has placed the health of an entire generation at risk.” The weight of this quote keeps getting heavier by each passing day. The center for disease control and Prevention defines an obese individual (adult or child) as a person at or above the 95 th percentile of Body Mass Index (BMI). A child between the 85 th to 95 th percentiles of BMI is referred to as 'risk-for-overweight.' Various definitions aside, it is sadly a concrete fact that the number of children with obesity or affected by it is rapidly increasing hence the need to address the pertinent issue and see all the angles as a whole.
I am personally drawn to deeply exploring the issue of childhood obesity because I have friends who are battling with it. I see the challenges they go through, how being obese affects their day to day, and how they try to cope with their current scenarios. While some claim that being close to the picture affects the whole project's view, I think being close to the picture increases one's ability to pick up tiny details and nuances. I write this essay well, knowing that childhood obesity is not a simple issue with easy pinpoint targets. I will, however, attempt to explore the multiple aspects of this growing phenomenon.
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Identifying the causes of childhood obesity is akin to solving a rubric’s cube. This is because its causes are multifactorial; a variety of aspects are interconnected, and dealing with them involves consideration of other factors. However, the causes can be broadly categorized as behavioral factors – this usually involves dietary habits, e.g., eating lots of calories rich but nutrient-poor meals, little to no physical activities or exercises, and poor eating habits. Environmental factors also come into the fore; this is brought out by easy access to junk food and difficulty in accessing healthy meals (as seen in most developing countries). Some children cannot access physical activity opportunities due to a lack of playgrounds, parks, or sporting traditions.
Medical factors have also been attributed to childhood obesity, hormonal disorders (e.g., hypothyroidism), syndromes (e.g., Beckwith-Wiedemann and Prader-Willi), medications (e.g., steroids and anti-depressants) are some instances of the medical aspects of childhood obesity. Genetics has been a bone of contention on its impact on obesity. Research shows that a child is at an increased risk of obesity when one of the parents is obese or if there is a general family history of obesity. Studies show that BMI is 25-40% hereditable (Anderson & Butcher, 2006). Scientific data also shows that family history does not set a child on the path of obesity. This is because there exists a wide variety of steps and precautions one can take to lower the risk effectively. In summation, using the "body weight set point theory," weight is determined by a complex interaction of genetic, hormonal, and metabolic factors.
Mentioning childhood obesity and outlining the research findings and demographic statistics can make the matter at hand seem like a distant notion. On the contrary, childhood obesity is a slowly looming epidemic on the rise. There are currently an estimated 55 million children under the age of 5 who are overweight or obese; these numbers are expected to rise by 5 million annually (De Onis, 2010). A more staggering fact is that childhood obesity has been deemed responsible for more than 14 billion dollars so far, indirect costs for outpatient care alone. Finances aside, obesity induces a myriad of complications in the children affected. Obesity is linked to comorbidities such as asthma, sleep apnea, increased risk of fractures, torsions, and sprains, delayed puberty, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, liver diseases, and cancer.
However, I would like to shed some light on the psychological toll obesity takes on children all over the world. Obese kids tend to have low self-esteem. This can occur because of the feeling of altered body image or the fact that they are prone to bullying and name-calling. This can eventually summate to depression. The obesity-depression relationship is not unidirectional; this is because depression can be both a causative agent and a consequence of obesity (Cornette, 2011). A higher prevalence of eating disorders such as bulimia and future anorexia has also been linked to obese children (Decaluxe et al., 2003). These psychological effects can eventually lead to poor academic performance hence plunging them deeper into the lower self-confidence hole dug by obesity.
Childhood obesity, like other vital issues, evokes a variety of views and opinions. It is renowned that obesity is generally a 'rich-people problem' confined to developed countries. An in-depth look at the rising numbers shows that this is not quite true. Increased internationalization of food trade has led to a shift in feeding habits in developing countries to junk food. The number of obese children is also increasing in the urban areas of developing countries. Sadly, the increase of obesity-related health complications overwhelms healthcare systems in the developing world. This further widens the disparities between the rich and the poor.
In retrospect, more needs to be done on childhood obesity. Tackling a matter as complex as this needs a dynamic, multifaceted intervention that calls for everyone's participation in society. As an initial step, diet and physical activity interventions should be imparted. This ranges from parents and other Primary Care Providers (PCPs) making healthier lifestyle decisions at home to changing school feeding programs and time allocated for sporting activities. It is also a general consensus among researchers that prevention is the best way to tackle childhood obesity. This involves governments passing legislation to create spots where children can play in urban areas, pediatricians giving health tips and recommendations to the PCPs, restricting sugar intake in kids, and regulating their feeding habits. It is also advisable to come up with sustainable community programs to help kids battling childhood obesity to improve their quality of life. As a finishing statement, I would like to say that together we can all impede this rapidly rising childhood obesity problem and thereby improve the quality of life for future generations.
References
Anderson, P. M., & Butcher, K. F. (2006). Childhood obesity: trends and potential causes. The Future of children , 19-45.
De Onis, M., Blössner, M., & Borghi, E. (2010). Global prevalence and trends of overweight and obesity among preschool children. The American journal of clinical nutrition , 92 (5), 1257-1264.
Decaluwé, V., Braet, C., & Fairburn, C. G. (2003). Binge eating in obese children and adolescents. International Journal of Eating Disorders , 33 (1), 78-84.
Cornette, R. E. (2011). The emotional impact of obesity on children. In Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity (pp. 257-264). Academic Press.
