Public Health Issue - Obesity: Causes, Consequences and Complications

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE – OBESITY
PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE – OBESITY
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Author’s Note:

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Introduction:
Obesity and overweight has become a global health issues and burden on the public
health care system in the recent years (Ng et al., 2014). According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), obesity and overweight can be defined as excessive and abnormal
accumulation of fat which may impairs the normal and natural function of the body system
(Who.int, 2019). As per the World Health Organisation guideline, a person can be termed as
obese if their BMI or Body Mass Index is higher than 30 and an individual can be termed as
overweight if their BMI exceeds 25 (Who.int, 2019). Age plays a significant factor while
defining obesity and overweight. For example, age needs to be in consideration while
defining overweight and obesity among children. In recent years, obesity and overweight has
taken a form one of the most fatal condition around the world (Ahrens et al., 2014). In a
recent WHO estimates in the year 2016, it has been found out that the more than 1.9 billion
people (aged over 18 years or older) were overweight and around 650 million individuals
among them were obese. It this estimates, it has also been reported that the almost 13 per cent
world adult population were obese (Who.int, 2019). Among them, prevalence of obesity in
higher among the female (15 per cent) in comparison with the male counterpart (11 per cent).
In addition to this, an estimation of 41 million children was either obese or overweight in the
year 2016 (Who.int, 2019). There are many factors which are responsible for the cause of
obesity and overweight. Obesity and overweight can be caused by both behavioural and
environmental factors. In addition to this physiological factor like gene composition also
plays a major role in the causation of the obesity and overweight. In a much more detailed
manner, obesity and overweight caused due to a culmination of metabolic, genetic,
environmental, behavioural, socioeconomic, and cultural factors. Among the above
mentioned factors, environmental, and behavioural factors play the most significant role in
the causation of the obesity and overweight (Williams et al., 2015). For the most part,

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overweight and obesity results from inadequate physical activity, large calorie consumption,
dietary habits, and sedentary lifestyles. Due to this, there are many deaths in every year and
once overweight and obesity was considered as a first world disorder, but now it is also
spreading in the developing country and third world countries (Hassanzadeh et al., 2012). In
Australia, the issue of overweight and obesity has become a serious area of concern and this
problem is enhancing day by day as well. Not only this, the issue of obesity and overweight
has also various other risk factors such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty
liver, some type of cancers. Moreover, it is very important to monitor the chronic conditions
like obesity and overweight as it is associated with various other problems as well. From the
report of Australian Government, it is reported that in 2014-15, almost 11.2 million or 63.4%
of the total Australian population have the problems of obesity and over weight in the
country. Among these total population, 35.5% or almost 6.3 million of Australian adults are
affected by the issue of obesity and overweight. The country is in the fifth position in the list
of obese country. Therefore, it was also reported that, the rate of obesity among the male and
female is almost similar.
Therefore, in this essay the factors responsible for obesity and overweight as well as
its complication, and consequences will be discussed in detail manner in the following
sections. Along with this, the literature review based on the research hypothesis will also be
discussed.
Hypothesis
H0= Obesity is not at all related to cardiovascular disease.
H1= Obesity is related to the onset of cardiovascular disease.
Search Strategy

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For this literature review section multiple databases such as CINAHL and search
engines such as Google Scholar was used. Along with this, report related to obesity and
cardiovascular disease was also used in the review of literature section. For searching the
articles from the online databases the keywords like “obesity”, “cardiovascular disease”,
“obesity in Australia”. For searching more articles “obesity risk factors in Australia”,
“prevalence of obesity in Australia” were used.
Review of Literature
Key Issues
Obesity is considered as one of the most prevalent issue present within the Australian
population that further develops the risk of cardiovascular disease, development of
musculoskeletal condition like cancer and type 2 diabetes mellitus (Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare, 2019). Due to increasing weight, the risk of developing this condition
also increase, as being overweight will affect the capability of an individual to manage or
control the side-effects of these chronic health condition. Approximately every 2 in 3
individual suffer from obese in Australia in the year 2014-15 (Aihw.gov.au, 2019). There are
various key issues that result in the condition of obesity and are included as highest
contributor towards burden of disease in Australia.
According to Accredited Practising Dieticians (APDs), there are various risk factors
that result in the condition of obesity such as genetics, consuming excess calories of drinks
and foods such as pastries, pies, doughnuts, chips, high sugar-sweetened alcohol and
beverages, continuously eating food that has more energy content as compared to the total
energy that is required by an individual per day, regain of weight after weight loss, less
physical activity and following the restricting weight loss diet (Www1.health.gov.au, 2019).