Public Health Issue
My selected public health issue is childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is a condition that affects the health of child which is characterized by excess body fat. Currently, the epidemic of childhood obesity has become a global problem and is listed as one of the major public health challenge. According to statistics, 1 out of every 5 children is affected by obesity in the United States.
Economic Forces
Macroeconomic Forces
The heterogeneity in the relationship between social inequality and prevalence in adolescent overweight signifies the macroeconomic forces involved in childhood obesity. A good example is depicted from where and how a child is raised. For example, a study by Wang revealed that 21 of 24 western Europeans countries were characterized by high levels of childhood obesity as compared to 5 out of 10 in central European countries (Wang & Lim, 2012). Therefore, forces are geographical location and lifestyle.
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Micro-Economic Forces
This usually arises as a result of the level of personal income. High income causes the market to produce excess calorific products as they are the ones that are desired by consumers. A cheeseburger being cheaper than a head of lettuce in McDonald is a good example of microeconomic forces in childhood obesity. Therefore, the forces are personal income and market structure (Teller, 2016)
Key Regulation Policy
In childhood obesity, they include the student fitness screening at school, body mass index, school nutrition legislation, early care and education policy, school recess legislation and state legislation (e.g., SCHIP).
Benefits and Consequences
The beneficial outcomes are that children are able to receive the care needed at home and at school. For instance, the utilization of school nutrition legislation would provide children with nutritious and healthy foods (assuming it involves preparation of food at school). Secondly, children will remain physically fit thus they become free of other lifestyle diseases such as CVDs. A program that would aid in this, is that of school recess legislation.
Onto the aspect of consequences, lack of policies to deal with the issue will result into increased lifestyle diseases which are associated with obesity including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension among others. As well-known, this will in turn increase the mortality rate of children in the country. Secondly, lack of proper/uniform implementation of these legislations will drag the drive for social and environmental change thus promoting childhood obesity which in turn affects many sectors including healthcare, economy, and labor among others. Basically, the implementation of policies would be beneficial to the country and to the world at large.
The Economic Impact of the Policies
The main economic impact of childhood obesity is increased medical cost (Margaris, 2017). Therefore, with the policies/regulations at practice, these medical costs would be cut down significantly. This is because the legislation will not only prevent the occurrence of childhood obesity but will as well prevent obesity later in life. Currently, the estimated annual childhood obesity medical costs in the United States is more than $14 billion.
References
Margaris, P. (2017). Macroeconomic Effects of Obesity: An Application to the UK. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Panagiotis_Margaris/publication/319329068_The_Macroeconomic_Effects_of_Obesity_An_Application_to_the_UK/links/59a52db3aca272a6461f7978/The-Macroeconomic-Effects-of-Obesity-An-Application-to-the-UK.pdf
Teller, A. (2016, October 14). Childhood Obesity Macro & Microeconomic Linkages. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/rdaulcdjsgiw/childhood-obesity-macro- microeconomic-linkages/
Wang, Y., & Lim, H. (2012). The global childhood obesity epidemic and the association between socio-economic status and childhood obesity. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4561623/
