Childhood Obesity and its Implications

Associate Degree Health and Science
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Assignment essay
Title : Childhood obesity and its implications.
Selection of health issue and population group :
Childhood obesity is one of the most epidemic condition worldwide. It is most prevalent
chronic condition which affects childhood. Most outstandingly, childhood obesity transmits
its effects through adulthood. Childhood obesity is associated with other complications like
T2DM, dyslipidemia, hypertension, sleep apnea, and fatty liver disease. Hence, childhood
obesity would affect productivity of the children in school and impacts overall quality of life
of the children. Children are considered as obese children, if BMI is equal to or greater than
95th percentile of age. Children are considered as overweight children, if BMI is equal to or
greater than 85th and 95th percentile of age. Choice of food is mainly responsible for the
occurrence of obesity in the children. Moreover, it is evident that children in the private
schools are more prevalent to obesity as compared to the Government funded schools
because children in the private schools are associated with selection food responsible for the
occurrence of obesity (Kumar and Kelly, 2017). Weigh gain mainly occurs due to imbalance
in energy consumption and energy expenditure. Obesity is a complex disease to treat because
its pathogenesis is multifactorial; moreover, genetic and environmental factors play
prominent role in the occurrence of obesity.
Determinants:
Various determinants which affects obesity are diet, physical activity, socio-economic status
and traditional culture. Child’s selection of food and the food environment play significant
role in obesity. Parents are mainly responsible for the selection of food and eating behaviour
in children. Parents need to have healthy food habit to influence the food habit of their
children. Children of obese parents are usually at high risk of obesity which is predictive as
the adult obesity (Kelsey, Zaepfel, Bjornstad, and Nadeau, 2014). Projecting advertising
practices and the high-energy dense food with low cost are mainly responsible for the
consumption of food with high saturated fat and sweetened carbonated beverages. Children in
the private school are highly exposed to fast food at their school cafeteria. Awareness about
the effects of low quality and energy dense food among the parents and teachers would be
helpful in reducing obesity; however, parents and teachers are not willing to update their
knowledge about the child obesity. In the recent past, it has been observed that interest of
children altered from outdoor games to the indoor interests like television, internet, and
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computer games. As a result of increasing population, there is increase in the buildings;
hence, there is scarcity of playgrounds in the societies and schools. Augmented burden of
academics also responsible for the reduced physical activity among the children (Ip et al.,
2017). Socio-economic status of the children demonstrated dual effect on the obesity in the
children. Children in the low socio-economic class are prone to obesity development due to
consumption of low-quality food and lack of physical activity. On other hand, children in the
high socioeconomic class are prone to obesity development due to more inclination towards
the western life-style. Moreover, increased prevalence of obesity in the high socio-economic
class children is mainly due to the more amount of pocket money, arranged domestic help
and availability of school buses. Tradition and culture also play significant part in the
prevalence of obesity. There is a common myth that fatty child is a healthy child which can
lead to development of obesity in the fatty child. There is a common belief that energy dense
foods like oils, ghee and butter are the necessary for strength and proper growth.
Healthcare practice:
Public health interventions play significant role in addressing childhood obesity. Perception
and attitudes of nurses towards obese children were evaluated using the Fat Phobia Scale and
Obese Child Patient Scale respectively. Registered nurses demonstrated more fat phobia
towards child obesity as compared to the student nurses. Moreover, registered nurses
demonstrated more negative attitude towards child obesity in comparison to the student
nurses. Nurses have perception that obese children are like more food, binged, shapeless,
slow and unpleasant. However, nurse should demonstrate positive attitude towards obese
children to provide effective intervention to control obesity. Nurse need to demonstrate more
positive approach towards obese children because obese children are more stigmatized and
experience discrimination from peers and community members. As a result of negative
perception and attitude of nurse and other healthcare providers towards childhood obesity;
there are chances of lack of competency among them for the management of obesity due to
lack of required experience. It is evident that both physicians and nurses lacked the
knowledge to diagnose childhood obesity and proper training and confidence for the
management of obesity (Tanda, Beverly, and Hughes, 2017).
Attitude of the healthcare providers need to be positive for childhood obesity management
because healthcare service needs to be provided in the integrated manner to the children.
Healthcare service need to be provided to the children by considering physical, behavioural,
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