Childhood Obesity in the United States: Socioeconomic Barriers and Supports

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

1
MILESTONE
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).