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 different communities at the state-level for those who may not have the financial ability or time to learn about obesity.
  2. Furthermore, provide examples of affordable health dietary plans in schools and workplaces for educational needs.
  3. Control the risks of staying on the internet and phone late at night for children and adolescents who have less self-control. Methods may include but not limited to cellular plan restrictions or application time restrictions.
  4. Provide an affordable education system that encourages more population to be educated, in order to prevent next generations’ childhood obesity.

Examples of determinants of health that move the population away from the edge of the cliff

  • Maintaining food prices at an affordable level, especially vegetables and other critical food that is required for a healthy This approach can also be combined with executing policies that tax fast-food or other unhealthy food factories and suppliers.

Safety net programs that address the problem

  • Provide physical education, promoting exercises and sports among the youth community by building infrastructures such as stadiums, football courts.

Tertiary prevention approaches

  • Providing public insurance to allow patients to afford surgeries and medical approaches when needed to deal with breathing issues, liver issues, and other consequences of obese children.

Figure 2: Coka-Cola Advertising Expense v. Children Obesity Rate in 2013-2018. (Coka 2018) (Children obesity facts, 2019).

Other means to intervene by the targeted population

Standardized Physical Education

Create policies that foster more exercises and physical activities based on children’s interests. First creating the need by exposing children and adolescents to more sports events, Olympics games that reward children, and promote team building.

Then, upgrade the infrastructures such as stadiums, courts, as well as bus stops to allow access to those buildings. The target is to lower the cost of exercise or perform physical activities.

Finally, standardized physical education is an essential grade remark for entering college or high school, just like any other course. By raising the scale of physical education in GPA, students and parents would dedicate more time to physical exercises and lead to a more healthy community.

Strict Tax Policy Targeting Firms

Generate tax policies directly against firms that supply fast-food or unhealthy food. After the cost of supplying fast food rises, firms would have less budget to spend on marketing and advertising, or the firms would have to increase their prices in the market competition. At the same time, those who produce healthy food and are at a similar price level would be able to advertise their product without increasing the price of the food.

The target is to raise the cost of accessing unhealthy food, and eventually shift to a more healthy diet.

Raising Awareness of Better Diet Plans

Cooperating with opinion leaders, those who have a lot of influence on the internet, to create short-video clips for parents and children to observe and learn in a short period of time. The content design may include the importance of keeping a healthy diet and the consequences of not doing so.

The target is to gain more awareness of the importance of preventing obesity and to educate parents on a better way to plan children’s dietary patterns.

Free Samples of Healthy Diets

Targeting children’s parents for special surprise gifts by cooperating with organic food/ health food suppliers. By providing samples with an organized, affordable family diet plan, parents may save time and effort deciding what to consume every day. By simply following the plan, children and adolescents may be able to enjoy healthy meals.

Food suppliers may also benefit from this. Free samples of healthy food do not cost a lot for the firms, by using the tax collected from unhealthy food. On the other hand, they would gain more consumers as awareness of the firm increases when parents benefit from a planned diet provided by the firm for children and themselves at affordable costs.

Citations:

Childhood Obesity Facts. (2019, June 24). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html#Prevalence.

Coca-Cola Co.: ad spend 2018. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/286526/coca-cola-advertising-spending-worldwide/.

Obesity and Overweight Among Asian American Children and Adolescents. (2016, April 1). Retrieved from https://www.apiahf.org/resource/obesity-and-overweight-among-asian-american-children-and-adolescents/.

Ogden, C. L., Lamb, M. M., Carroll, M. D., & Flegal, K. M. (2010, December). Obesity and socioeconomic status in children and adolescents: United States, 2005-2008. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21211166.

Wang, Y., & Zhang, Q. (2006, October). Are American children and adolescents of low socioeconomic status at increased risk of obesity? Changes in the association between overweight and family income between 1971 and 2002. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17023695.