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Obesity : A Top Problem For Public Health

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A Review of the Literature Obesity, a top problem for public health, is a global epidemic that kills no less than 2.8 million people every year. Obesity is a significant factor for many diseases which include Type 2 diabetes, some cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Many at times, being overweight is mistaken for being obese. Being overweight or obese means having abnormal or excessive fat accumulations respectively that could have negative health effects. BMI, body mass index, was introduced to calculate underweight, overweight or obese people as it correlates with the amount of body fat in an individual. Adults are considered obese if they have a BMI of 30 or higher. A number of factors are said to contribute to this epidemic in adults. …show more content…

Alaska was substituted with the District of Columbia since it is an outlier amongst the collected data. Maddock (2005) found that although a lot of research was carried out to decrease weight by personal weight-loss interventions, a very little outcome was achieved (p. 137). Instead, an environmental factor that promotes obesity was discovered. Obesogenic environments, a term used to distinguish environments with the availability of inexpensive, calorie-dense foods and the engineering of physical activity out of daily life (Maddock, 2005). He hypothesized that “the prevalence and unequal distribution of fast-food restaurants throughout the United States could influence the differences in state obesity rates” (Maddock, 2005, p. 137). Consumption of food away from home and the rate of consumption of fast food correlate to body mass. He also stated that the consumption of fast food increased by over 200% within 1977 to 1995 (Maddock, 2005). The 2000 U.S. census and fast food-outlet lists from the 2002 U.S. yellow pages were included in the collected data. The CDC’s BRFSS, behavioral risk factor surveillance system, was used to indicate obesity as having a BMI of equal to or more than 30. The number of square miles per fast food restaurants and residents per fast food restaurants were calculated by dividing the total state land area by the amount of restaurants and

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