Population at Risk: Obesity Assignment
In actuality, the problem of obesity is one of the main issues that threatens to the public health of the US. Even though the US government, non-profit organizations and health care professionals make a lot of efforts to prevent the development of obesity and resolve the problem, the share of obese population in the US keeps growing. In this regard, children are also at risk and they comprise a relatively new risk groups compared to the past. For example, a couple of decades ago, the problem of obesity affected the adult population mainly, whereas today the problem of obesity affects children as well. In such a situation, the development of effective strategies aiming at the prevention of obesity among children becomes the priority not only for health care professionals and parents but also for educators, social workers and other community members because obesity among children undermines the public health, while the growth of costs of the public health has a negative impact on the quality of living of every community member, whether obese or not. Therefore, the prevention of obesity among children is essential but the effective prevention is possible on the adequate assessment of the at risk group of the population and the identification of the major causes and risk factors that trigger the development of obesity in children. Population at Risk: Obesity Assignment
The obesity in adults in the US has more than doubled since the 1970s. The substantial growth of obesity is traced not only among the adult population but aslo among children. The latter is a relatively new trend, especially compared to the 1970s, when the problem of obesity was rather the individual matter than the matter of the public health that affects a large and young population. Recent national data show that 82.0 percent of Black women and 77.2 percent of Hispanic women are overweight or obese compared to 63.2 percent of White women (Ogden et al., 2014). In fact, the racial disparity among obese people is quite significant. Over half of Black women are obese (versus 37.1 percent of Black men and 32.8 percent of White women) (Ogden et al., 2014). Moreover, extreme obesity continues to be higher among women (8.3 percent) than men (4.4 percent), especially among Black women who have more than double the rates of extreme obesity as White and Hispanic women (16.4 percent versus 7.4 percent and 7.6 percent) (Ogden et al., 2014). Rates of overweight or obesity are higher for Hispanic men (78.6 percent) compared to Black men (69.2 percent) and White men (71.4 percent) (Ogden et al., 2014). Therefore, it is not only race but also gender that increases the risk of the development of obesity. At any rate, women are more vulnerable to the development of obesity than men.Population at Risk: Obesity Assignment
In this regard, children are also a risk group because food habits of their parents as well as the unhealthy environment increases the risk of the development of obesity and related health problems. Moreover, researchers (Hellmich, 2003) reveal a strong trend to the growth of the share of obese or overweight children within the last decade. The increase of the obese population among children makes them one of the major risk groups. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that children are at higher risk than adults because they do not always understand that they do have a problem. What is more, they cannot adequately assess the scope of the problem and may simply ignore their overweight, which may eventually evolve into obesity. Children simply do not know how address the issue and how to cope with their overweight or obesity. Being under pressure of their peers, they may just aggravate their condition by devouring more food in response to bullying or ridicule from the part of their peers.
There are several risk factors that determine the development of obesity. First, the racial disparity in the development of obesity is one of the main factors. At the moment, the share of obese children among non-white children is consistently higher compared to white children (Zametkin, et al., 2004). This trend may derive from the adult population disparity in terms of obesity development. However, this trend has little, if anything to do with heredity. Instead, this trend is rather the result of family habits, nutrition and lifestyle of children. Nevertheless, the larger share of obese population among non-white children makes them more vulnerable to the problem and, therefore, they are at the higher risk.
However, race or ethnicity itself does not trigger the development of obesity. The major cause of obesity is nutrition. In this regard, the non-white population is at higher risk of the development of obesity especially among children, because their socioeconomic position deprives them of an opportunity to have healthy food on the regular basis. The low income is actually one of the factors that urges people to consume cheap but unhealthy food. In fact, the income of families often defines the nutrition and the level of physical activities of children. This is why children, who have unhealthy nutrition and cannot afford practicing sports tend to develop obesity and related health problems. Population at Risk: Obesity Assignment
Another important factor increasing the risk of obesity is the sedative lifestyle or the lack of physical activities. In this regard, the lifestyle of representatives of different ethnic and racial group is to a certain extent similar but white children often have better opportunities to practice their favorite sport because their parents can pay for the required equipment and training fees. Today, children are less physically active then they used to be a couple of decades ago. The technological progress, cultural and social changes, and the overall change of the lifestyle of contemporary people may and do lead to the development of the sedative lifestyle, low physical activities of children and, thus, the higher risk of the development of obesity.
The dominant culture tends to marginalize obese people, especially children. As it has been already mentioned above, children with obesity suffer from bullying from the part of their peers. They often become subjects of ridicule from the part of their peers and face many other issues. Such problems may have a traumatic psychological effect on children with obesity that may lead to their further marginalization and poor socialization. The disintegration of children with overweight or obesity is one of important factors that increase the risk of the development of obesity. Children are more sensitive to their social environment than adults, especially in their adolescence (Marks, 2004). This is why they may develop serious health problem, if they dissocialize and stick to their unhealthy food habits and sedative lifestyle.
In fact, I have worked with the at risk population, namely children, who faced the problem of obesity, while I was performing functions of the teacher assistant and when I was working as a tutor. I worked with children and a part of them had problems with overweighed or were obese. In the course of my work with children, I have reveal substantial difficulties children with overweight or obesity may have in the communication and interaction with their peers. At the same time, I have noticed that they simply do not know how to resolve their problem and needed the assistance of adults, who could give them a piece of advice on how to resolve the problem of obesity.Population at Risk: Obesity Assignment
At the same time, often children, who face the problem of obesity, often suffer from biases and prejudices shaped by deep-rooted social beliefs. For example, often children with obesity are viewed as outcasts because of their overweight and their peers tend to bully them. The attitude of peers to children with obesity is very important, especially in adolescence, because the position of peers becomes more important for them than the position of parents and other adults (Flegal, Carroll, Ogden, & Johnson, 2002). In such a situation, children with obesity face the risk of marginalization.
Another problem driven by biases and prejudices in relation to obese children is the belief that they are responsible for their health problem. For example, many people believe that children are obese just because they eat too much. In actuality, they are obese because they eat unhealthy food and lead a sedative lifestyle or cannot perform as much physical activities as they actually need. In fact, biases and prejudices often lead to the inadequate understanding of causes of the problem of obesity. Such misunderstanding can lead to wrong and ineffective policies to prevent obesity among children.
Furthermore, often people ignore the fact that food habits of parents are also important and can cause the development of obesity in children. For example, irregular and unhealthy meals can become a cause of obesity in children, but it is actually parents, who are responsible for the health problem being developed in children. The lack of parents’ awareness and their unhealthy food habits increase the risk of the development of obesity among children. Population at Risk: Obesity Assignment
Thus, children are a risk group in terms of the development of obesity because today obesity has become the common problem and a large share of the US population suffers from obesity. At the moment, there are multiple risk factors that aggravate the position of children and trigger the development of obesity among children. In this regard, children from ethnic and racial minorities as well as children from low-income families are at a particularly high risk of the development of obesity because they are more vulnerable to the major risk factors, such as unhealthy nutrition, lack of sports and physical activities, and unhealthy food habits of parents, than white children. Traditionally, women are more vulnerable to the development of obesity, but this trend cannot always be traced among children because they keep growing and maturing. Nevertheless, the risk persists among all ethnic and racial groups, although in some groups it is higher than in others. This is why the development of effective policy of the obesity prevention is imperative because such policy can decrease the risk of the development of obesity in children and minimize negative effects of obesity on the public health, life of many individuals and economy of the US at large.Population at Risk: Obesity Assignment