Obesity: Impact, Prevention, and Role of Nurses in Health Promotion

This essay discusses the impact of obesity, importance of health promotion, prevention strategies, and the role of nurses in reducing obesity. It also includes policies and programs implemented by the UK government to tackle this public health issue.

Running Head: OBESITY
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Obesity
Essay

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Obesity
This particular essay is explained about obesity, health promotion, importance, the rationale
of choosing the topic, its impact on people, determinants of health, analysis of inequalities
and policies those impacts on the public health issue. It will also include the role of nurses in
the health promotion and wellbeing of the people. Obesity is one of the largest problems for
the world in health care and it has grown at a very fast rate in last years. Obesity is occurring
due to more body fat, and it may be a genetic problem. This type of problem increases in
society due to many factors such as fast food, lack of exercise, and calories.. There are many
technologies developed in the world to reduce body fat such as climbing machines. Exercise
is also the best way to avoid obesity, reduce fat, and avoid heart attacks and diabetes
problems. This paper is about the causes and prevention of obesity and it also deals with the
role of nurses, a healthy diet and exercise to reduce obesity. Obesity is defined as a person
who is overweight with body fat. There are two main factors that increase obesity such as
lack of exercise, and lifestyles. Obesity can lead to diabetes, heart attacks, and other diseases.
Obesity occurs when a human takes more amount of food and does not indulge in any
exercise, and physical activities. There are many reasons that are increase obesity such as side
effect of medicines, body fat, depression, and nervousness (Goodwin, Cummins, and
Sautkina, 2013).
Rationale of choosing the topic
According to the present data, the number of obese people has doubled since 1980 and it is
the fifth largest cause of global deaths. Around 2.8 million humans die every year due to the
obesity problem and it is the most common reason for heart attacks. In the last 25 years,
obesity in the UK was measured and found that obesity has doubled in the last 5 years. The
latest accessible information from England and Scotland indicate obesity commonness rates
that are 22% for men and 18% for young boys. This rate for Scottish women is higher than
English women. According to 2009 data, around 61% of people in America are obese and
20% of children whose age between 3 to 5 years are also obese
Health is defined as a system that converts, transfer, and use energy source with maximum
efficiency. According to world health organization, health is a state of biological, mental, and
absence of diseases. Health is a type of process that recovers from diseases and other
infections. Health promotion is defined as a process which is used to control human health
and improve their health (Vandenbroeck, Goossens, and Clemens, 2007). Health promotion is
defined as guaranteeing safe nourishment and water supplies, giving counsel to national food
and drug security controllers, shielding individuals from ecological dangers, and having a
regulatory structure for controlling illnesses in place. The main goal of health promotion is to

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involve and empower people to select health behaviours and provide a platform to reduce
different types of diseases and infections (Welwitschia welfare centre, 2016). According to
the world health company, health promotion is a process of enabling humans to improve
control over and reduce infections. It focuses on people nature towards the social and
environmental behaviour.
Health promotion can be used as prevention for a disease because it focuses on human health
and reduces chronic diseases and other infections. Wellness is related to health promotion
which is defined as a decision that contributes to human's health behaviour. Social promotion
of health is the social, political, economic, and behavioural situation in which humans grow,
and improve their health. There are many activities includes in health promotion such as
communication, education, policy system, and environment. Health promotion is very
important for human’s health because it increases the health status of people, society, and
families (Swinburn, Sacks, and Hall, 2011).
It improves the quality of life for all individuals, decreases premature deaths, reduces a cost
for humans, and provides a complete solution for diseases and other infections. It is the
development of people, institutional, and policies to increase knowledge of health, skills, and
reduce infections. The goal of health promotion is to influence the behaviour of people and
industries (Wiley online library, 2012).
A weight of people can be determined in different ways but a most common method is BMI.
According to the National Health Service of UK, body mass index can be used to determine
the weight of any person. BMI is divided into two categories such as people with a BMI
range of 25 to 29 are considered as overweight, and people with BMI between 30 and 40, are
considered as obese.
That means over 30 BMI individuals fall into the obese category and over 40 BMI people fall
into unhealthy obesity (Haroun, et al., 2011). There are many websites through which
information on obesity can be collected such as Guardian, NHS, and telegraph. According to
NHS data of England, around 29,237 humans faced obesity in 2002 and almost 33,546
individuals faced obesity problem in 2003. During that time population of England increased
from 2004 to 2009 that are 21.45%, 29.20%, and 38.90% rise respectively and the number of
persons suffered from obesity problem had increased from 40,741 to 141,219 individuals.
According to data from 2009 and 2010, the percentage of obesity in England increased at
pick value that is around 48.91% and almost 211,783 people are obese whose age between 16
and 74.

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In 2002, the number of ladies suffered from obesity problem was 17,169 and number of men
who suffered from obesity was 12,068 that mean around 5,100 obese women's higher than a
number of obese males (Wiley online library, 2012). The main reason for this problem is that
lack of exercise. Exercise and another physical activates are very important to reduce obesity,
and other chronic situations. A human is said to be overweight if the BMI of that human is
between 25 and 29 but if BMI of any person is above 30 then that person is in the obese
category. In UK obesity is a common problem that increases diseases, and other infections.
According to data, a rate of obesity in England is one in every four-person (Ahern, et al.,
2013).
Obesity is the main problem in the UK, to reduce obesity in human’s government of UK
made many policies that reduced obesity and other diseases problems. Many children are
consuming calories through sugar that increase obesity and other infections (Cure joy, 2018).
To reduce obesity in adults, SACN provides a soft drink industry across the United Kingdom.
In England, this program, reduce obesity and promote physical activities such as yoga, and
exercise and maintain the diet for children. Sugar is also a big problem that increases obesity;
to reduce this problem the government of the UK is making a program in which all food
industries reduce overall sugar in all products. This program will be led by public health
England community and will be applied to all food industries (Stubbs, et al., 2011).
To help adults, and humans to identify healthier choices, Public health England is developing
a program to identify healthier food that reduces obesity and other diseases. Obesity can be
reduced by improving physical activities; therefore, world health organization improves the
quality of the sport, exercise, and physical activities for children and adults. Schools are also
a big platform to improve health services by promoting healthier choices, and physical
activities such as yoga, and exercise. Obesity and other diseases can be reduced by enabling
health professionals that support society, and families to identify better healthier food for
children (Wright, et al., 2010). In 2008, a government of England made an action plan to
reduce obesity that is a healthy weight, healthy lives (Croker, Lucas, and Wardle, 2012).
This program helped to reduce obesity by promoting healthier food for families. There are
many policies to tackle the problem of obesity in the UK such as social marketing change for
life, start4life, a national helpline for breastfeeding moms, family nurse, and healthy children
programs. According to WHO, obesity can be prevented by following tips such as –

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Promoting healthy food, developing policies and action plan to reduce obesity, training
healthcare system to promote physical activities program, eat more fruits, and nuts, exercise
and other physical activities can reduce obesity, reduce use of sugar and fatty foods, and
drink water to avoid other infections (World Health Organization, 2008).
Nurses play an important role to reduce obesity and other infections, nurses are working with
the government organization, private hospitals, agencies, and in many industries (Everyday
healthy, 2009). There are following the important role of nurses to reduce obesity such as –
provide a proper advice to eat healthy food and physical activities such as exercise and yoga
during pregnancy, promote breastfeeding for the first 6 months, work with society, and
families to support for dietary and yoga habits of adults, and children, promote children to
make healthy food and exercise to reduce obesity, support to obesity persons to reduce
weight by doing exercise and other physical activities, and provide the information about
healthy diet and exercise for pregnant ladies (Rennie, Coward, and Jebb, 2007).
Exercise and a healthy diet are very important to reduce obesity, diseases and lose weight.
There are many benefits of exercise such as lose weight, reduce obesity, and reduce other
diseases such as cancer, heart attack, and blood pressure (Escamilla, 2013). The main
advantage of exercise is that it increases metabolism of the body. There are many exercises
that reduce weight such as back, biceps, calves, chest, shoulders, and triceps. For a healthy
lifestyle, some steps can be used such as for walking use bicycle, using stairs to lose weight
and walking daily around 1 km, the healthy diet helps to give a particular shape, and avoid
many risks such as heart attack, cancer, and diabetes. Today obesity is linked with lifestyle
and environmental factors such as genetic and biological 2003 (Ransley, Greenwood, and
Cade, 2007).
There are main two lifestyle factors that increase obesity such as eating fast foods and
reducing exercise. The main reason for this problem is that lack of physical activities
(Semantic scholar, 2013). There are main three environmental factors that increase obesity
such as lack of physical activity, fast food, and low socioeconomic status. There are many
educational approaches to avoid obesity and other diseases such as promoting healthy diets
and physical activities, provide a proper training to students and make a course for student’s
related obesity and other diseases, and make government policies to the prevention of obesity
(Escamilla, and Bermúdez, 2012).

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Behavioural approach is defined as a set of principles and different techniques to reduce
different types of diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and other infections. For obesity, there
are three steps involved in behavioural approaches such as antecedents, consequences of
eating behaviour and eating behaviour to lose weight. Nurses can be a key factor in reducing
the obesity. As they are a health practitioner, people listen to them and will follow what they
are told by them (Escamilla, et al., 2012). Nurses can be used to educate people about the
harmful factors of obesity. They can be sent to various schools and teach the students about
obesity. They can be sent to various companies and talk to the working people about the
prevention of obesity. They can also meet with the house workers where they can share
information on how they can reduce obesity by changing some of their habits (Swanton,
2008).
Obesity is the main problem for individuals and there are many factors that increase obesity
such as lack of physical activates and exercise, eating fast foods and low socioeconomic
status. In the UK it is a common problem through which many diseases occur such as
debates, cancer, heart attack, and obesity. This research is explaining about obesity, the
impact of obesity, the role of nurses, and exercises to reduce obesity, and the impact of
obesity on the UK. Around 29,237 humans faced obesity in 2002 and almost 33,546
individuals faced obesity problem.
It is recommended that the issue of obesity can be avoided by reducing the use of unhealthy
foods and beverage and people can adopt the exercise plans. If any person follows proper
training and diet plan then he can improve their health and individuals can check their BMI
on regular basis to analysis their problem.
This essay identified important data related to obesity in the UK. It is very important to
understand the effect of obesity, the role of exercise and healthy diets, the role of educational
approach and nurses to avoid obesity and other diseases. According to the World health
organization, the main reason for obesity is the lack of physical activities. However, to avoid
this type of problem the government of UK had made many policies that were explained in
this essay. Nurses play an important role to reduce obesity and they provide a platform to
reduce obesity and other diseases.
Therefore, to reduce this type of problems in families, and the society government should
introduce more strategies and policies. Change in lifestyles, plays an important role to reduce

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obesity, so people should be more aware of their healthy lifestyles. They should include
healthy food and physical activities in their day to day life.

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