Obesity Impact On Health And Social Care

There is a requirement for patients to show their commitment to losing weight, and the approval process can be long and drawn out depending on each local trusts policy. Some experts have stated that the high BMI cut off may have caused some patients to gain weight in order to be eligible and that despite the cost savings, the NHS may have the wrong priority when patients with cancer are being refused certain treatments due to cost whilst obese patients have made themselves ill through choice.8

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

Obesity has become an epidemic across the United States. Americans have continued to gain weight, increasing the amount of people that are considered obese by millions every few years. More and more experts have come to a consensus: weight needs to be addressed and changed in America. Many experts, however, have not found a way to completely solve this problem at large. In the article, “Rethinking Weight”, senior writer Amanda Spake directs attention to the barriers our society has built for obesity treatment. Through this attention, it becomes evident these barriers have developed from the changing ideals in our society. Roberta Seid, a lecturer at the University of Southern California, argues in “Too “Close to the Bone”: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness” how our body ideals have changed the way our society views obesity. Both authors emphasize the problem our society faces with obesity becoming an epidemic, and how that needs to be changed so our society can live happier and healthier lives. Although both authors are achieving the same point, Spake concludes that obesity has stemmed from pharmaceutical problems and biological factors, while Seid holds that obesity has come from the changing fashion and body ideals in our society. By reading both articles in conjunction, it becomes clear that the root of this problem is our societal issues, obesity has become an epidemic because of the way our society neglects obesity from all aspects.

Increasingly high obesity rates among the U.S. population have both personal and societal ramifications. For the individual, increased body mass has been linked to a myriad of health issues including heart disease, Type II diabetes, high cholesterol, cancer, strokes, kidney & liver disease, and hypertension. (Wilmore, et al., 2008) On a societal level, the Center for Disease Control estimates that obesity related medical care costs reached a staggering $147 billion in 2008 with obese patients costing $1,400 more per patient than those that fell into a "normal" weight rage (CDC). Obesity-related diseases may also contribute to millions of lost workdays and higher insurance premiums (CNBC).

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).

Those assumptions of the taken for granted relationship between obesity and health sometimes obscure the real causes that harm patients and lead to more fat-stigmatization. For instance, it is rare for a fat person to visit a doctor for checkup without hearing the normative advice to try to lose weight and eat healthy even though the visit might be completely unrelated to weight (Boero 2012: 134). This pre-assumptions and judgements that any fat person lives an unhealthy life style is already an issue.  The negative and automatic mind set of doctors, media and society towards obesity might be the root of the issue. Indeed, Boero in her book tells us of how gynecological cancer was thought to be more likely in obese women, and many concluded that obesity caused this type of cancer. However, one study, the WomanCare Plus, found that this cancer can be treated if early screening was done no matter what your size is (Boero 2012: 132). Moreover, they interviewed patients and found that women with high BMI faced some barriers that slowed their screening. For example, more than a third of women reported that they didn’t want to deal with the negative attitude of doctors towards their bodies. Also the embarrassment of not finding equipment that fit their size and the disrespectful treatments demotivated

Heintze, C., Sonntag, U., Brinck, A., Huppertz, M., Niewöhner, J., Wiesner, J., & Braun, V. (2012). A qualitative study on patients' and physicians' visions for the future management of overweight or obesity. Family Practice, 29(1), 103-109. doi:10.1093/fampra/cmr051

That is great to hear about your personal story of going through a dramatic weight loss and healthy lifestyle changes. I respect your honesty about having biases toward morbidly obese patients. I work on a cardiac specialty floor and I have witness negative attitudes toward obese patients. I have been guilty of this bias myself. It is sometime hard as healthcare professionals not to pass judgments on these patients because it requires so much manpower to take care of just one overweight patient. It is also frustrating to teach these patients about making lifestyle modifications to avoid further health complications, when they are not willing to make the changes. I realize that I need to educate myself on obesity discrimination because

In recent years, obesity rates continue to grow in the United States, not just overweight, socialization difficulties, but it is a society that is developing a new medical condition. However, a worrying number of overweight Americans living with this abnormal condition does nothing to fix their obstacle, satisfies with light diets, and few minutes a day of exercise. ''While the number of obese adults has doubled since the 1980s, extremely obese adults has quadrupled, currently affecting one in every 50 adults, an estimated 300,000 people in the United States die annually from obesity-related diseases'' (O’Donnell, par.4). Unfortunately, years ago obesity were not an overwhelming problem in proportion, as now, each person has to prevent the number of calories to consume a day to be in the healthy average. Across the country, obesity is an epidemic that affects the quality of life, because unbalanced diets cause our body’s improper nutrition and deficient the essential vitamins and minerals our bodies require. Obesity should not be seen as an epidemic, instead as a medical condition that can be solved and controlled through the following years.

Life deals us with different obstacles we must overcome. Some are psychological, some are physical, the worse are the ones that spiral out of control. The article focuses on the people that suffer from obesity. Written by Gina Kolata for the New York Times, titled Why Do Obese Patients Get Worse Care? Many Doctors Don’t See Past the Fat. I will analyze Human behavior theories and perspective, and what can be done to prevent such stigma towards the obese.

Many people disagree with the claim that there is actually a stigma around obese people and whether or not obesity should be viewed as a disease. Some people are argue that since there isn’t a clear cure for obesity, then it should not be considered a disease. This denial of the severity of obesity contributes to the stigma that comes with being obese because the general population begins to think that there is no hope for the obese population. Amanda Spake comments on this issue when she talks about how insurance agencies will not cover treatments because they don’t know if they are effective or not. She writes, “The health insurance industry argues that obesity treatments can’t be covered because there is no evidence of effectiveness” (Spake

Throughout history being heavyset was an indicator of wealth, while being skinny was closely linked to poverty. Today, however, if a person is fat or obese they are often described with negative traits like laziness, sloppiness, and not having self-control. Even though they are associated with unfavorable characteristics, the obesity overweight rates are continuously rising. Approximately sixty percent of Americans are currently overweight; about twenty-seven percent are clinically obese (Korn 212). As obesity and overweight rates rise, so does the discrimination against those considered overweight or obese in the workplace. To some, obesity is considered unattractive and because of this heavyset people are often looked over by employers for

Obesity can drastically effect an individual and their family. To document this, TLC or The Learning Center, has a show called “My 600 Pound Life”. This television show documents the life of morbidly obese people that must change their life or else they will most likely die. The show not only explains gastric bypass surgery, but the show shows the audience the physical and mental toll on the obese person and their family. There is one story with a girl named Christiana and her family were sort of the enablers. She was over 600 pounds, she did not have any control over her life at and that should not be the way an American should experience life. The doctor in the show requires the patient to lose a certain amount of wait to be able to have

Obesity in America is a problem facing healthcare professionals in our modern day and age. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one third of U.S. adults are obese (2014). There are many concerns facing individuals who are obese, the risks for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke all increase with obesity. Obesity creates preventable health risks, costing our nation billions of dollars spent to care to those who are obese. There are theories of health that explain the increase in obesity rates, and how individuals overcome the change in behavior. Two will be researched and presented in this paper, the Health Belief Model and the Transtheoretical Model and Stages of Change.

Weight discrimination “generally refers to negative weight-related attitudes toward an overweight or obese individual” (Puhl 1). Obesity numbers started to skyrocket in the 1990s and weight discrimination started to become a problem about five years later. Obese individuals are susceptible to weight discrimination at health care facilities, school, work, and even in personal relationships. Studies have found that the chances of experiencing weight discrimination increase the more an individual weighs. “In our study, 10 percent of overweight women reported weight discrimination, 20 percent of obese women reported weight discrimination and 45 percent of very obese women reported weight discrimination. men were lower, with 3 percent of overweight, 6 percent of obese and 28 percent of very obese men reporting weight discrimination. This finding also tells us that women begin experiencing weight discrimination at lower levels of body weight than men” (Puhl 2). For women weight discrimination is more common than race discrimination.