Overview of the health disparity issue

The obesity rate in children and adolescents impacts around 20% of 6-19 years old children(Children obesity facts, 2019). More than 13 million of the US children and adolescents population suffer from obesity. Children with obesity or overweight would be more likely to develop adult health problems correlated with obesity, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, Type 2 diabetes. (Obesity and Overweight Among Asian American Children and Adolescents, 2016)

Quick Statistics about United States children and adolescents obesity:

– More than 18% of children and adolescents are obese, which impacted more than 13 million people. (Children obesity facts, 2019)

– Among all children and adolescents, 12- to 19-year-olds have more prevalence than any other age ranges. (Children obesity facts, 2019)

Importance of Obesity to the society

Obesity Definition

Obesity among children has a different standard than among adults. Body mass index or BMI is the measurement for childhood obesity and overweight. According to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention “Overweight is defined as a BMI at or above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. Obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex.” (Children obesity facts, 2019).

See: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/bmi/calculator.html for more information about obesity

Why is Children Obesity an Issue

  1. Obesity may cause health, behavioral, and psychological issues. (Obesity and Overweight Among Asian American Children and Adolescents, 2016)
  2. Health issues may include chronic health conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes
  3. Behavioral issues may include lower self-esteem among peers

Psychological issues may include been the outstanding one among peers and therefore been a victim of a bully.

  1. Children may also expose to a higher risk of developing obesity and cancer (Children obesity facts, 2019)when they become adults.
  2. Obesity may also expose more risks for children to have (Children obesity facts, 2019):
  3. Higher blood pressure and cholesterol
  4. Breathing problems

Joint issues

  1. Fatty liver diseases
  2. Social issues and psychological issues such as anxiety or lower self-esteem

Obese childhood would be more likely to develop adult obesity; therefore requires more medical care than a normal person. This is a potential cost for the medical care system as they would require more medical resources.

Obesity Causes

Education (Ogden, 2010)

  1. Researches indicate that children with parents who have college-level degrees or higher get a lower level of obesity compared to kids with parents who have a high-school degree or lower.
  2. Race, ethics, and gender(Ogden, 2010)
  3. Hispanics (25.8%) and non-Hispanics Blacks (22%) have a higher obesity prevalence than White (14.4%) and Asians (11%) (Children obesity facts, 2019).

Poor managed-nutrients dietary patterns

Some children do not have access to a healthy, clean, and affordable diet due to income, family, transportation issues. Then they comply to restaurants that offers cheap food but contains higher calories and fat, such as McDonalds, and local fast food restaurants. (Wang, 2006)

According to Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention(Children obesity facts, 2019), more than half of the children and adolescents population drinks at least 1 drinks per day that includes sugar, especially carbonated drinks.

Food that is cheap but with more fat, sugar, and other unhealthy ingredients are more frequently advertised and marketed (Children obesity facts, 2019)since they have more resources to do so than to spend more budget on improving food ingredients than those healthy restaurants.

Not enough physical activities(Children obesity facts, 2019)

  1. Public transportations to public parks or sports center is not available or rather complicated for teenagers to transit. However, parents normally would not have time to company children during the opening time of sports centers or recreation centers.
  2. Students generally do not have quality or routinely physical education in school due to pressure of standardized tests such as SAT, ACT. They would spend more time to prepare for examinations than to do physical exercises which contains less value to them by the value of society.

Unstable sleep routines (Children obesity facts, 2019)

  1. With the development of technology, more and more children and adolescents have access to phones, tablets, computers, and the internet, which allows them to be entertained, or learn anytime anywhere. This indicates that more children have the option to stay up late than decades before. Statistics also support that children’s and adolescents’ sleep time is delayed compared to before.

Income (Ogden, 2010)

  1. The majority of non-Hispanics white children and adolescents who suffer from obesity do not live under 130% of the federal poverty level.
  2. Researches show that obesity is more common as income increases.

What can be done?

 Cliff Analogy

Primary prevention

  1. Free online short video clip lectures in