Tackling Adult Obesity in Newham London Borough: Targeting Population Group 45-75

Adult obesity target
population group 45 to 75
Newham London borough

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
As per World Health Organisation health is a state of complete physical, mental and
social well being and not only absence of disease. Health of an individual is essential to live their
life to fullest. When a person adopts a healthy lifestyle, their body remains active and mind is
fresh. It is important as living a healthy life will result in longevity and regenerate both mind and
body. Healthy living helps an individual to enjoy all aspects of their life. Maintaining healthy
lifestyle provides individual to avoid diseases related to their physical health such as obesity.
Obesity means a complex disease comprises of enormous amount of body fat. It is a medical
issue that maximises risk of other diseases and more health problems such as heart disease, high
blood pressure, diabetes etc. Generally obesity is result of inheritance, environmental or
physiological elements mixed with diet and exercise choices. This issue is a major concern as
extra pounds in body often leads them on path of health problems like diabetes and high
cholesterol in early age. This can be measure if their body mass index for age distribution is
higher than 95 percent.
This assignment presents understanding of public health problem of obesity, its
determinants and defining the problems associated with it. It identifies what needs to be change
and appropriate measures to intervene. The assignment covers stakeholder engagement,
resources and input required to solve the problem of obesity and evaluation of necessary
measures with an appropriate action plan. The population that is considered in this assignment to
identify adult obesity in target population group ranges between 45 to 75 years. In Newham
London Borough adult obesity rates are third highest in the capital. One in four of adult of 45
and above age group in Borough are considered obese according to a report of NHS (Shaw,
2018). According to a survey around thousand people were diagnosed for obesity for every one
100,000 population in London Borough (Brooke, 2019).
Obesity is becoming one of the major serious public health issue where authorities are
making efforts to fight risk factors of obesity. Risk factors includes type 2 diabetes which occurs
when a person's blood glucose gets too high. High blood sugar leads to issues like heart diseases,
kidney problems, nerve damage etc. Another risk is increasing problem of sleep apnea where a
person finds it difficult to breathe properly while sleeping. Moreover, fatty liver diseases are also
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a threat where extra fat builds up in person's liver due to obesity. In this assignment, the focus is
on intervention measures on how obesity can be controlled and cured through addressing dietary
behaviours and reducing consumption of sugar in food & beverages.
Background
Obesity as health problem worldwide has tripled since 1975. In 2016, people with age 18
or older contributes to overweight by more than 1.9 billion. From those, over 650 million were
obese. 39 % of adults of age 18 years and below were overweight and 13% were obese. A health
survey in England 2019 estimates that 28% adults in England are obese and further 36% are
overweight. Around 63% of adults are overweight and half of them are suffering from obesity.
Adults living in deprived part of country are likely to be obese than those residing in less
deprived parts (NHS, 2022). Of obese adults around one in eight were morbidly obese. Since
1993, proportion of adult in England who are obese drives from 52.9% to 64%.
Epidemiological
Obesity is a problem that have an essential impact on health impairment and reduces
quality of life. It is a major public health and economic issue of global significance. The best
precise way to measure obesity in adults is by utilising Body Mass Index for age percentiles. It
can be calculated by dividing an individual's weight in kilograms by square of height in meters.
BMI is recommended by the National Institute of health and care excellence as practical estimate
of overweight on adults and young people. There are also other measures including neck
circumference which is considered reliable for identifying adults with high obesity. Another is
Rohrer's Ponderal Index which measures obesity by dividing weight in kilograms by height in
meter cubed. Its has the ability to predict percentage body fat in adults.
A health survey in England in 2021 entails that half of its population is classified as obese
for that reason number of health related issues are also increasing which are reducing life
expectancy of people. Around 63% are considered as overweight which constitutes over 35
million people. Where 56% of adults admits to lose weight which makes it one in five UK adults
(Formulate Health, 2021).
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The age group that is most likely to be overweight in 2019 was between 65 to 74.
presence of overweight was more than 70% in age group from 45 and above.
(Source: Obesity statistics)
As shown above, men are more exposed than women to become obese. But obesity level
in women are above men as women have 29% and men have 27% level of obesity.
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Illustration 1: Obesity statistics

The problem of obesity at Newham London Borough has seen rise with rise in fast food
outlets. Newham ranked third worst borough for obesity with 43.6% of 45 to 60 years old were
considered as obese which is result of fast food outlets. Newham is becoming proof of how an
overload of takeaways can help poor eating choices. In Newham London Borough, combination
of low income, social deprivation and fast food stores has contributes in creates problem of
obesity to flourish (Mathur, 2019).
(Source: Newham’s adult obesity levels rise alongside increased access to fast food)
Distribution statistics
More than half of London's adult population is classified as overweight or obese less than
the national average.
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Illustration 2: Newham’s adult obesity levels rise alongside increased access to fast food