Childhood Obesity: A Public Health Issue

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Obesity rates in the United States are alarming, with more than one-third of U.S. adults and 17% of children qualifying as obese with a Body Mass Index greater than 30.0 (Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2015). Even more frightening is the growth rate of this crippling health epidemic; between 1980 and 2014, obesity has doubled for adults and tripled for children (CDC, 2015). The physical consequences of rising obesity rates in our country include an abundance of physical ailments including type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, arthritis, elevated cholesterol, and even some cancers. Additionally, obesity-related health care costs to our country are estimated at $147 billion annually, plus the costs of productivity lost at work and in the community (CDC, 2015). With 300,000 annual deaths attributable to obesity, it remains one of the leading causes of premature death in America (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (USDHHS), n.d.). While obesity is pervasive throughout all socioeconomic and cultural groups, there are certainly social factors contributing to this state of health. Non-Hispanic blacks have the highest rates of obesity, followed by Hispanics and then whites (CDC, 2015). Additionally, links between obesity and poverty have also been suggested (Bellafante, 2013). Though this is a national crisis, the disparities in affliction between different socioeconomic and ethnic groups demonstrate the strong influence of social determinants of health and the need for upstream interventions to combat this growing disease, particularly in vulnerable children.

The threat seems overwhelming to the youth facing the hurdles of poor nutrition and inactivity compounded by society’s failure to protect them, and wi...

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...ies in their school lunches, lawmakers say. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/11/nation/la-na-nn-congress-school-lunch-20121011

Stanhope, M., Lancaster, J. (2012). Public Health Nursing: Population-Centered Health Care in the Community. Elsevier: Maryland Heights, MO.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (USDHH). (nd). Office of the Surgeon General. Overweight and Obesity: Health Consequences. Retrieved from: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/calls/obesity/fact_consequences.html

‘We Are Hungry:’ Students protest lunch guidelines in YouTube video. (2012, September 26) FoxNews.com. Retrieved from: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/09/26/high-school-students-parody-new-school-lunch-guidelines-in-youtube-video/

We Are Hungry. 17 September, 2012. YouTube. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IB7NDUSBOo

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