s Prof. Larsen English 120 28 Nov. 2016 Community Struggles Over the past few decades in the United States the disease obesity has become a national epidemic. In the Encyclopedia of Nursing it states the following “The latest projections of the World Health Organization (2010) indicate that globally in 2005, 1.6 billion adults were overweight and 400 million were obese, and that by 2015, 2.3 billion will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese” (1). This was from 2010 the current obesity rate in the United States among adults is roughly 36.5% according to the Center for Disease and Control Prevention. The CDC is the nation’s health protection agency which protects against disease. With this epidemic continuing to grow and no …show more content…
Obesity is defined by the Encyclopedia of Nursing “Obesity is a chronic metabolic disease and is characterized by an accumulation of excess body fat caused by increased caloric intake and decreased energy expenditure” (1). Obesity can cause several health conditions and even death. In America to be considered obese is when a person’s Body Mass Index also known as BMI is over 30. Obesity divided into three categories. Here is the breakdown of the categories per the Center for Disease and Control Prevention “Class 1: BMI of 30 to < 35 Class 2: BMI of 35 to < 40 Class 3: BMI of 40 or higher. Class 3 obesity is sometimes categorized as “extreme” or “severe” obesity” (1). An obese adult can have many health diseases such as heart disease, instance of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and sleep apnea. With these health problems adults, will also have increased health care cost. According to the article The Economics’ of Obesity: Cost, Causes and Controls” by Clare Ulrich “Total health-care costs for obesity-related problems were tabulated at $75 billion in 2003” (1). This is an estimated cost of what the nation spends on healthcare for the Obesity related health cost. J.G. Trogdon’s article Indirect Costs of Obesity: A Review of the Current Literature he talks about the obesity in six categories. One of the categories in these categories he discusses what the government pays in income due to obese related …show more content…
One wouldn’t think race would make someone be prone to being obese. In the article, Race, Place, And Obesity: The Complex Relationships Among Community Racial/Ethnic Composition, Individual Race/Ethnicity, And Obesity in The United States by James Kirby. He talks about how race and ethnicity has impact certain race’s more than others. “For example, approximately 50% of African American women are obese compared with only 33% of White women” (1572). One reason he mentions that this may occur is because of social acceptance. Socially it may be ok for an African American woman to have a different weight standard in her community. In a Caucasian community, that standard maybe different also. When Kirby researched more into the topic he found that “Our analysis, therefore, included variables that recorded the poverty rate, and the number of grocery stores, convenience stores, specialty meat or vegetable stores, gym or fitness facilities, full-service restaurants, and fast-food restaurants per capita” (1574). This means that obesity may affect different races due to the environment they are in living community. Kirby found that in a low-income area the community is less educated, more frequently disadvantaged and living in a metropolitan area. (1575). In Metropolitan area’s there are tons of fast food on every corner they are affordable and easy to access. Fast food seems to be a major contributing factor to
An estimated 97 million adults in the United States are overweight or obese (Klein 2000). “"Affecting one in five Americans – or more than 22 percent of the U.S. population – obesity is one of the most pervasive health problems in our nation right now," said George L. Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of surgery and associate director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. "We need to implement steps to slow the progression of this national epidemic” (NAASO 1999). But the problem of obesity does not only affect the United States. "We now know that the growing prevalence of obesity is creating major health problems worldwide," said Dr. James O. Hill, president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Obesity was once regarded as unique to Americans, but it is now seen as a global health risk affecting developing and underdeveloped countries (AOA 2000). Obesity is increasing at an epidemic rate in the United States - 1.3% a year for women over 20. Rates of obesity among minority populations, including African-Americans and Hispanic Americans are especially high (AOA 2000). There is also a marked increase in obesity among children.
Obesity is defined as a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduce life expectancy and/or increased health problems. “The problem of obesity is increasing in the United States. Understanding the impact of social inequalities on health has become a public health priority in the new millennium. Social, political, and economic factors now are acknowledged to be "fundamental" causes of disease that affect behavior, beliefs, and biology.” (Goodman, 2003) In the United States today, obesity has become an enormous problem. In the last 3 decades, the number of people overweight has increased dramatically. Obesity has not always been seen as a medical
During the past 20 years, there has been a substantial increase in obesity in the United States and rates remain high. More than one-third of U.S.
“Obesity is a disease that affects more than one-third of the U.S adult population (approximately 78.6 million Americans). The number of Americans with obesity had steadily increase since 1960, a trend that has slowed down in recent years but show no sign of reversing”.
Obesity and weight related disease are at an all time high and continue to plague the United States.
In the United States today, obesity has become an enormous burden on both the health and healthcare of those affected. In the last 3 decades, the number of people overweight has increased dramatically. According to the Centers of Disease Control, as of 2013, 34.9% of our population is considered overweight or obese. America is the richest yet the fattest nation in the world, and our obese backsides are the butt of jokes in every other country (Klein, 1994).
One in three Americans are at risk for more than 30 chronic illnesses due to obesity. It is the biggest driver of healthcare, costing the country millions of dollars each year. Poor eating habits are the main cause of this disease and could all be changed beginning with the youth of the nation. 20 million children under the age of five are now considered overweight or obese in America (Dyer). What was once a rare disease, has now become an epidemic. Few health topics have initiated as much debate and controversy as obesity has within the past 15 years. The hope of new treatments progresses as obesity becomes the norm of our society and continues to change America every day.
Obese- is becoming an “epidemic!” We have 44.3 million people that are either obese or over weight. In 1986, the numbers were at 1 in 2000, and they became 1 in 400 by the year 2000. Even our high school age students are at an all time high of 16% overweight and 10% obese. As that number keeps increasing, future projections for covering healthcare expenditures must figure in the obese-related
According to the Center for Disease Control Obesity affects approximately one third of the United States’ adult population. Every state has an obesity rate of at least 15% and nine states in the United Stated have rates over 30% (CDC, 2010). Obesity affects some demographics more than others with Native Americans, Hispanics and African Americans experiencing higher rates of obesity than their white counterparts. The rate of obesity in the US has been rising “from 13.4% in 1980 to 34.3% in 2008 among adults and from 5% to 17% among children during the same period.” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Being obese carries severe health and financial burdens. People classified as overweight (having a BMI between 25 and 29.9) or obese (having a BMI of 30 or higher) have increased risk of developing heart disease, type 2 Diabetes, liver disease, stroke, certain types of cancers, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, hypertension, abnormal menstrual cycles, Dyslipidemia and infertility (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Medical spending for those who are obese is on average $1,429 per year higher than individuals of a healthy height. As Finkelstein explained in his 2009 study, “the connection between rising rates of obesity and rising medical spending is undeniable.” (Finkelstein, 2009, p. 831?)
Science and medicine researcher, Matthew Herper, discusses the expenses of obesity in his article, “The Hidden Cost Of Obesity.” He says, “The economic cost of all this extra fat is immense. Direct medical costs are easiest to calculate, coming in at $93 billion, or 9%, of our national medical bill,” (Herper). This quote shows that obesity is a costly disease and the expense of it is accumulating to billions of dollars in bills. Herper goes into even more detail about costs when he discusses the social costs of obesity when saying, “Obese people miss more work, costing employers something on the order of $4
Nearly a third of adult Americans are obese (NCHS 2003). The occurrence of obesity in the United States’ adult population has more than doubled in the last 25 years, from about 15 percent in 1976 to more than 30 percent in 2000. Since obesity in the US has reached epidemic levels, it is important to understand as many aspects of the social determinants of this disease as possible. Obesity is not a standalone disorder; rather it has caused increases in increasing risks of disability, related diseases, and death as well as important and burdensome increases in the cost of health care (Allison, Zannolli, and Narayan 1999; Wang et al. 2003). Further, obesity is estimated as contributing to almost 15 percept of deaths in the US each year (Allison and Fontaine et al. 1999; McGinnis and Forge 1993; Rogers, Hummer, and Krueger 2003; Sturm 2002).
The CDC’s fact sheet on obesity reports that in 1998 the medical costs associated with obesity cost Americans were estimated to be at least $78.5 billion annually; that figure nearly doubled in ten years to $147 billion annually in 2008. The fact sheet also cites that in 1998 18.3% of the overall adult population was reported as being obese; in 2008 that number
For quite some time now, many researchers have been suggesting that the United States is facing a serious problem in regards to healthcare and the numbers of overweight and obese individuals. Our lifestyles affect our health in major ways, and with obesity becoming an epidemic, this could make a major impact on the healthcare system. In a report from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for Americas Future, its states that if obesity continues to grow, then more than half Americans will be obese by the year 2030. (journal of food distribution research vol 44 issue 1).
The trend of health care costs is still primarily based on treatment and less on prevention. Adult obesity is a significant cause of preventable chronic diseases and one cause of increased health care costs in the United States. The cost of obesity impacts each state and community. Adult obesity can be associated with chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, and some cancers, just to name a few, and account for more than 75 percent of U.S. health care cost. Currently, costs range from $147 billion to nearly $210 billion per year. If this trend continues, obesity-related medical costs alone could reach 66 billion a year by 2030.
Obesity has caused great dilemma in America. It was known as an adult disease. “Over two thirds of adults are over weight or obese.”(Obesity, Jerry R Ballenttne) these numbers are increasing rapidly. Obesity is not just a appearance