A study by the World Health Organization in 2000 mentioned that the lack of physical activity in youths is causing serious overweight and obesity issues. Obesity is increasing worldwide at an alarming rate in both developed and developing countries. There are many health consequences for obesity ranging from individuals having a higher risk of premature death to having a poor quality of life. Obesity is the cause of many life threatening disease and chronic health problems such as cancer. According to the Singapore National Health Survey conducted in 2010, between 1992 and 2010, the obesity rate in Singapore residents aged between 18 to 69 years old, has more than doubled from 5.1% of the population to 10.8% of the population that are obese. Possible reasons for the rise in obesity rate in Singapore could be the easy access to affordable food such as food from the hawker centres and fast food joints, which tend to contain higher amount of fats and less nutrients. There is also a lack of time to engage in exercises and physical activity due to the demands of work and cultural beliefs that associates higher amount of body fats to prosperity and wealth.
The education system in Singapore is anchored on the holistic development of a child. Holistic development of a child can be divided into two broad areas: academic excellence and character education. Physical Education is one of the main drivers for character education. However, it sometimes comes as a challenge for schools to
With growing population it is normal to expect this change to affect environmental and health nationwide. By making ourselves aware of these issues allows preparations and changes to decrease chances of diseases and viruses. The biggest environmental concern is obesity because in the last two decades Americans have witnessed noticeable changes in the average body formation by a 10 percent increase. This has become the number one nutritional concern on the public health agenda. Although many do not understand how this obesity epidemic began but speculation is contributed to the environmental changes. Many believe the lack of exercise versus consumption of food is the most logical reason for obesity. The concern of fast food has also remained in the spotlight for unhealthy, greasy, high calorie food. Obesity can contribute to other health concerns such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. With growing population and the increase in obesity finding a solution for this concern is important.
Public health issue refers to a health issue that affects the populations as a whole and its financial burden to the society. Childhood obesity is a major public health issue that has impacted the public population health and the cost to prevent and control it. The primary concern deals with obese children growing into obese adults in the future posing an increase in health care cost to obese related health conditions. Strongly linked to mortality and morbidity in adulthood, childhood obesity can cause low self-esteem, eating disorders, negative body image, asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular health factors and decreasing the quality of life (Thorpe, et al., 2004). Social determinants of health impact the risk behaviors of childhood obesity from diet and built environment. At the family level, examples of both determinants can be seen in changes to family structures, socioeconomic status, and perceptions and attitudes toward health and nutrition. Children spend most of their time in a school setting, so school setting changes have been made to nutritional and physical activity policy, physical education equipment, and the sales if unhealthy food and drinks.
In today’s world many people are considered overweight or obese. That’s 35.7 percent of adults are considered to be obese. There are many health risks of being overweight or obese the most common health risks are type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and high blood pressure. However, most people who are obese is because they don’t exercise enough. They never exercise also, the food they eat it is very high in fats, sugar and saturated fat that can add up over the years and as a results it causes heart attacks, type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. In statistics and research that America is one of the obese countries in the world. First of all, in America you will see many fast food restaurants
Apart from healthcare issue, the country has adopted the fast-moving life style, which has pushed most of our citizens to succumb to obesity as a result of fast foods. In fact, a recent report by the UN has ranked the United States as the most obese country in the world. Parramore (2012) outlines that, “Obesity is currently being considered as a national crisis in the United States and that it contributes 100,000 to 400,000 deaths per year. Statistics at the CDC and Prevention in 2010 indicate that 35.7% of the American adult is obese.” Many input trends exist in the American society, “First and foremost, people are highly used to fried foods, sugary drinks, and processed meats among others. There is also the sedentary lifestyle that has been adopted by many,” (Huffington Post, 2013). In fact, most of us love relaxing without exercise and too much television watching. These are some of the factors that contribute to obesity. The result is health complications problems such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease just to mention but a few. These affect the longevity of life.
Obesity is the problem when the individual gains excess of body fat that it may cause a negative impact on his health in terms of suffering from type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or even cancer (Brownson et al., 2009). With the increase in fat in the body, the risk of these diseases increases in the individual. The problem of obesity has significantly increased with time amongst the people of Australia. 28% adults were obese as per the statistics of the year 2014-15 in Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). The children are also suffering from the problem in the country. It has been noted that for the year 2014-15, one out of four children aged between 2 to 17 years were found obese or overweight
The United States of America leads the world as the country with the highest obesity rate. Obesity is a life threatening condition and a prerequisite for many other conditions such as diabetes. Along with causing life threatening conditions obesity can cause day to day problems such as lack of energy and poor mental performance. Both of these day to day problems brought on by obesity and poor health in general affect many students in school and adults in the workplace, causing low productivity and low moral in both students and employees. It is important for healthy habits, such as a healthy diet regular exercise, to be encouraged and required by teachers and employers through out the U.S to ensure every student and employee is working at their personal maximum performance.
Besides, studies have shown that “The obesity epidemic ranks among the leading causes”. (WHO, 1998) are “poor diet and physical inactivity were the second leading cause of death in the USA in 2000 and may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of avoidable death” (Mokdad et al.,2004). “Obesity is a complex medical condition, which has social and psychological dimensions and some major economic aspects.” (WHO, 2000). “It affects people of all ages and socio-economic groups, and of both genders, and is not restricted to developed countries” (WHO, 2000). From
Obesity has become a national health problem. It is an increasing health risk factor in Unite Stated. Obesity had combined with the common sedentary lifestyle; example Stress, diabetes, increase blood pressure, heart disease is linked to the top cause of death, gallbladder disease, gallstones, breathing problems, such as sleep deprived and depression. As a result of obesity medical bills are higher, so the trend of increasing work stress, and general unhappiness are common factors of overeating and not enough exercise. Obesity has affected not only the children, but as well as parents. Parents are not establishing the role of providing their children healthy diets. By not offered fruit and vegetable. Friend of my daughter often have dinner with us said I never vegetable when I was child, they vane cook vegetable. American children are at a risk of becoming obese or is obese (“Journal of the Royal Society”, 2006). It is a shame the U.S is having problems with obesity and other countries are with
The rate of obesity is increasing globally and is a serious public health issue. It no longer only affects developed countries but is also having implications on developing countries. Often the focus is placed on individual choices and behaviours, this does not take into account the research and evidence that clearly shows that obesity is a multifaceted issue. To improve the level of obesity the broader determinants needs consideration. This essay will identify the key determinants of obesity and discuss the social, environmental, individual and cultural determinants of obesity. Ultimately, it must be realised that obesity is not predominantly an individual problem.
As at 2004, it was observed from a healthy survey that 14% of children between 2-11 years and 25% of 11-25 years old were obese in England, while in the USA, the prevalence of childhood obesity is observed to be higher in most minority ethnic group (fix the reference here). Additionally, excess obesity is also seen to occur in other ethnic group like South Asia, as they are more likely to be sensitive in having excess weight gain. Clearly, Obesity can be a crucial key factor in developing medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. Thus, from public health view point, obesity is seen as a crucial health
Media plays a massive role I the epidemic, the sheer amount of advertisement that the public see for fast food and unhealthy foods have an effect, especially on children. Health risks are growing and psychological problems are rising. Obesity is weighing heavily on the country’s healthcare system and economy. Society’s perspective on obesity is unlikely to change, its understandable that some think it is self-inflicted but its important we shed some light on the medical issues that can also cause obesity. One of the biggest problems seems to be how accessible and convenient unhealthy foods are. At this present time obesity is killing three times as many people as
Obesity is becoming one of the biggest problems in the country, but there has to be reasons for it. It can be the economy, society now, or people and companies. It’s time that our country starts to realize that we can’t live like this anymore. We need to see what is causing the sudden rise in obesity, and what we can do to fix it. Education of risks and solutions can be very helpful. Obesity is killing so many people, yet is still 100 percent avoidable. Our country is beginning to care less and really let themselves go. The fast food industry, supermarkets, and schools are the ones at fault for the spreading problem of obesity.
There are a tremendous amount of causes for obesity but the main 3 are fast food, food addiction and lack of exercise. In the United States alone there are about 50,000 fast food chains and over 500,000 located around the world. During 2007-2010, adults consumed, on average, 11.3% of their total daily calories from fast food (Caloric intake). Food addiction has had a great impact on obesity in America. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, consuming fewer sugary drinks and high energy dense foods can prevent and reduce obesity. The third cause of obesity is the lack of exercise in America. Some benefits of exercise are lowering blood pressure, reducing cancer risk, reduces body fat and ward off viruses. People often make excuses such as not having time or not having the energy to exercise. “Compared to 40 years ago, people today spend more time commuting, sitting in front of a computer, watching television, playing video games, and generally exercising less.” (NIH 2008). Obesity would not be a problem if people consume less fast food, not over eat and spend an hour a day doing activities involving physical
After putting together all my researches, I found that they all had the same results to their surveys and data collections and the same conclusion; obesity is a major problem in American society and it leads to multiple health issues. Data shows that obesity is the cause of chronic disease risk, morbidity, high health care costs and social costs (Nestle & Jacobson 2000). After the American society has identify obesity as a risk factor for cardiac health, many federal agencies has come up with guidelines, educating American people how to reduce their calorie intake, how to stay active and burn calories in order to maintain healthy body weight. On the other hand, these governmental guidelines did not take in consideration population with socioeconomics challenges, which might contribute to obesity. One the federal plan called Healthy People 2010, highlight individual goals connected to daily physical exercise, which is believe to help people with risk of heart disease such as hypertension and obesity. According to Healthy People 2010 goals, by 2010 American society should increase 60% the prevalence of healthy weight, reduce the number of obesity at least to less than 20%, and increase the number of public schools that teach healthy nutritional habits like eating fruits, vegetables and make physical activity a part of school curriculum. Research has also indicated that there is a close the link between the way parents teach their children, children activity level and
Obesity is classified as one of the extremely common and serious public health problems in the world. Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading global risks of mortality in the world (World Health Organization, 2009). Furthermore, they are one of the major factors of for a number of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer (World Health Organization, 2005). According to NHS UK, obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more for adults, and the UK 1990 growth reference curves are used to define obesity for Children (Cole TJ, Freeman JV, Preece MA, 1995). The growing challenge of obesity of Europe countries is remarkable among Asian countries .In 2008, 1.4 billion adults (35%) aged 20 and over were overweight and 500 million were obese (11%). More than 40 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2012(World Health Organization, 2014). That is the global obesity situation. Furthermore, the obesity problem in the UK is not optimistic, the UK has the highest obesity rates among Europe countries, and this trend has strikingly increased over the recent years to the point where more than 20% of the population are now obese. (University of Birmingham, 2014) However, the obesity situation in Singapore is more worrisome. In 2010, 40% adults aged 18 to 69 were overweight and 10% were obese which is more than double the level seen in 1992. (Ministry of Health Singapore, 2010) This essay will