Childhood Obesity in the United States: Socioeconomic Barriers and Supports

This paper discusses the socioeconomic barriers and supports for addressing childhood obesity in the United States. Strategies to increase physical activities, healthy food consumption, and breastfeeding are suggested. The paper also highlights the challenges faced by low-income families and recommends solutions such as setting up food parks and community gardens.

Running head: MILESTONE
Milestone
Name of the Student
Name of University
Author’s note

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Introduction
The public health issue that has been chosen for this short paper is childhood obesity in
United States. In order to address the issue CDC has suggested to focus on the strategies to
increase physical activities, strategies to support healthy food consumption, strategies to increase
the incidence of breast feeding, peer support and educating the mothers about the appropriate
choice of food.
Socioeconomic barriers to change
Proper interventions can mitigate the occurrence of childhood obesity, but there are
several socioeconomic factors that might restrict the implementation of the interventions.
Individuals might be educated about the proper diets and food regimen but, people belonging to
low socio-economic status cannot remain adhere to healthy diets due to the high cost of the fresh
food.
Physical activities can be recommended for decreasing the incidence of childhood
obesity, but it has been noticed that people having low income are likely to reside in congested
and crowded space having very little scope for physical activities. For example, a child might
enroll in a sports activities, where a parent might have to pay the enrollment fee. According to
Hardin-Fanning and Rayens, (2014), parental control can have several aspects of the nutrition
and physical environment contributing to the health related behaviors. Many parents does not
realize that their children are turning to be obese (Gerards et al., 2012).

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MILESTONE
Although health promotion programs can be used for the mitigation of the prevalence of
childhood obesity, it can be difficult to conduct any health promotion activities in remote
communities.
Supports
The socio-economic supports that could be provided to some extent is by the setting up of
the food parks which can provide healthy and nutritious food to the people who cannot afford
healthy and fresh food. Again the economic considerations like the affordability of the junk and
the fast foods as well as the high cost of the nutritious food are some of the commonly assumed
determinants. Reducing the fast food meals can reduce the cost of the food (Seburg et al., 2014).
The government can make provision for space for the setting up of the community
gardens, hence people belonging to low socio-economic background can grow fresh vegetables
and fruits in their own premises. As stated by Brennan, Walkley and Wilks (2012), there are
much disparities in the cost of the food in the rural communities due to the added up
transportation cost. Hence the food cost is higher in the rural areas. The food that are available in
the remote areas have very low nutritional value and high cost. Hence, government should make
provisions to make the deals with the local farmers such that nutritious and fresh food can be
reached to the children.
Conclusion
In order to facilitate changes to decrease the prevalence of the child hood obesity, some
recommendations can be made. For example, decreasing the availability of the fast food,
educational programs to understand the behavior of the parents towards the particular health

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MILESTONE
problem, setting up of the community gardens to enhance production of fresh fruits and
vegetables, contacting with the local farmers for the supply of the fresh food to the children in
schools. The readers can set up online forums or can reach out to the government legally for the
implementation of the changes.

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References
Brennan, L., Walkley, J., & Wilks, R. (2012). Parent‐and Adolescent‐Reported Barriers to
Participation in an Adolescent Overweight and Obesity Intervention. Obesity, 20(6),
1319-1324.
Gerards, S. M., Dagnelie, P. C., Jansen, M. W., De Vries, N. K., & Kremers, S. P. (2012).
Barriers to successful recruitment of parents of overweight children for an obesity
prevention intervention: a qualitative study among youth health care professionals. BMC
family practice, 13(1), 37.
Hardin-Fanning, F., & Rayens, M. K. (2014). Food cost disparities in rural communities. Health
promotion practice, 16(3), 383-91.
Seburg, E. M., Olson-Bullis, B. A., Bredeson, D. M., Hayes, M. G., & Sherwood, N. E. (2015).
A review of primary care-based childhood obesity prevention and treatment
interventions. Current obesity reports, 4(2), 157-173.