Public Health and Obesity: Impact, Factors, and Weight Stigma

This report focuses on the concept of public health and its role in addressing the issue of obesity. It explores the impact of obesity on physical and psychological health, factors causing obesity, and the role of weight stigma. The report also discusses the importance of nursing staff in addressing this public health issue.

PUBLIC HEALTH

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................1
THEMES..........................................................................................................................................2
Theme 1: Impact of obesity on physical and psychological health of an individual and the
rationale for addressing the issue ..............................................................................................2
Theme 2: Factors causing obesity ..............................................................................................3
Theme 3: Role of weight stigma ................................................................................................4
CRAP analysis of literature reviewed ........................................................................................5
Gaps and contradictions in literature ..........................................................................................6
SERVICE IMPROVEMENT...........................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
“Public Health” can be termed as a concept aims to reduce particular illness by the
collaboration and inclusion of different governing bodies, organizations and health carers. As per
the view of Ogden and et.al., (2015), the term public health is used for various health concerns of
community and large scale population. It is a broader aspect which includes different health
delivery systems to gather and apply various health models to improve the quality of services
and health outcomes of people. The report inhibits a purpose of designing a public health agenda
to treat a severe health issues in wider community.
The study will focus on Obesity which is a concerning health issue and the importance of
nursing staff to cater its patients or sufferers. According to the health statistics provided by NHS
in the last 25 years the number of obese people in UK has been trebled and by 2015 it created a
burden of £6.4bn per year on its management. This cost has been increasing every year (What
are the health risks of obesity?, 2014). The report will cover an introduction to selected health
issue, health models and policies that are designed for it. It will also include several themes
which will indicate that how nursing can play crucial role in addressing this public health issue.
METHODOLOGY
Obesity is a wider health issues that is continuously becoming a topic of concern for
healthcare organizations as well as health carers. Nurses are one of the health professionals being
a primary body of support to cater obese patients. For conducting the analysis different
literatures were searched. Different health statistics and database from NHS, WHO and obesity
related health care organizations helped to develop a strong foundation for the basic
understanding and significance of the discussed health issue.
Several literatures work which includes impact of obesity and strategies to overcome it
with the support of nurses were searched. The key search terms include obesity, impact of
obesity, role of nurses to overcome obesity and methods to treat obesity. The search was refined
some aspects (Locke and et.al., 2015). For instance, the obesity statistics were searched
particularly within UK context and from the NHS. In order to review the literature in more
details articles which were published by health professionals or organizations were preferred.
This refining of search term helps to select the most relevant and precise form of literature.
Different open source software, research and journal articles were reviewed and
compared to draw systematic themes for the literature review purpose. After critically reviewing

different literature works systematic analysis of all the collected information was carried so that
themes can be developed. In order to critically analyse the literature work the relevant facts and
theories were also compared with the real world data and concepts provided by the health care
professionals and organizations.
THEMES
Theme 1: Impact of obesity on physical and psychological health of an individual and the
rationale for addressing the issue
According to Brownell and Walsh, (2017), obesity is considered as the major health issue
which is caused by lower involvement in physical exercises and high intake of calorie. The
additional weight encourages the risk of several other chronic diseases such as diabetes,
cardiovascular and respiratory issues as well as certain types of cancer. Thus as compare to
normal weighed people obese people are more likely to suffer from healthcare concerns. The
diabetes has been one of the challenging aspect to manage among obese people and thus can be
life threatening if weight management techniques are not used.
(Source: Obesity harms children and young people, 2015)
The productivity of obese people is also influenced by their mobility capabilities. Obese
people may not perform mobility functions such as jumping, walking, running due to their lower
Illustration 1: Impact of obesity

flexibility and stamina. The excessive fat in the obese people influences the enzyme functioning,
metabolism, hormone patterns and regulatory schemes in the body which give rise to the various
diseases. The obese people also undergoes into psychological and emotional breakdown. The
low confidence level due to appearance complex and depression are quite common among obese
people.
The childhood obesity is more critical as compare to obesity among adults because the
accumulation of excessive fat in lower age not only increases the health risks but also enhances
the vulnerability of chronic diseases in younger age (The causes of childhood obesity in
England’s most deprived areas, 2016). The society, family members and peers often used to
misbehave with the obese people due to their appearance and lower physical capabilities. There
are variety of services which are not easily accessible and comfortable for the obese people and it
make them more embarrass about their appearance. For instance, the small sitting space in public
transportation is quite challenging for the people suffering with obesity. It creates the
psychological imbalance and trauma.
As per the view of Bray and et.al., (2016) obesity has been one of the dominant force in
decreasing life expectancy among young people. Though obesity is not directly related to the
psychological impact but the stigma related to the health issues leads to discrimination, mood
swings and eating disorders. The metabolic syndromes, joint issues and blood pressure
difficulties are quite common among obese people. Thus it is quite essential for the health
professionals and regulatory bodies to assure that suitable healthcare interventions are used for
the obesity sufferers.
Theme 2: Factors causing obesity
There has been wide range of factors which results in obesity and makes the weight
management strategies less effective. The weight of individuals is also influenced by the genetic
factors along with the food intake habits. When parents are overweight then it is also possible
that obesity is also inherited to the child and thus from childhood individual may fall in the
category of fat. Since family members may not consider it as serious issue it is also possible that
the weight of child continues to increase further with age.
As per discussion in Heymsfield and Wadden, (2017) certain medical issues or diseases
such as thyroids or surgeries also make people obese which can be controlled by routine physical

exercise. One of the most significant reason for obesity is the lack of awareness and unhealthy
food intake. Most of the people especially young and childhood groups tend to prefer junk food
and other similar options instead of healthy and nutritional food. It leads to the accumulation of
fat and thus weight is increased.
Hence it is essential that people must be aware about the weight management needs,
techniques and the details of their calorie intake. For this purpose, individuals can ask for the
help of health professionals or the dieticians. There are communities who believes that eating
habits are related to joy and happiness and thus there must be no concern of eating food with
calculation. Along with the unhealthy food eating habits the life style of people is also more
comforting (Hawkes and et.al., 2015). People do not prefer to perform any kind of physical
activities. The use of excessive technical equipment and facilities diminish their physical actions.
For instance even for going a few stairs people prefer to use lifts or elevators. The
prolong sitting in the professional field and the lack of routine physical exercises reduces the
metabolism and increases obesity. The physical inactivity is not considered seriously by
individuals and thus number of people suffering with obesity is also increasing rapidly. It has
been also analysed that there are people who desires to manage their weight and to overcome the
issues of obesity but the limited support and guidance prevents them in achieving their goals. For
example, people may want to reduce weight but they are not able to access any dietician or the
knowledge to perform physical exercises.
The obesity cases can also be reduced by promoting the knowledge regarding the
nutritional value and information of various types of food (Lobstein and et.al., 2015). Especially
with children it is observed that people does not have any idea about the nutritional index of the
food they are consuming. For majority of the consumers taste, price and availability are the
prime factors which regulate their food choice. Only a rare portion of community consider the
nutritional index of food before purchasing or consuming the food. Thus health care
professionals must communicate and provide knowledge to communities so that people can learn
to include healthy food in their routine and obesity can be controlled.
Theme 3: Role of weight stigma
The obesity is considered as disgrace by most of the people in society. Instead of taking
the issue as a serious health concern people used to assume the aspect as a fact to abuse others.
This is one of the key reason that most of the people tend to deny the fact that they are

overweight and do not desire to seek the weight management. In order to achieve excellence in
health outcomes it is required that weight stigma must be challenged.
The obesity is reinforced as a negative concept and thus people suffering with the issue
faces stress and guilt for their appearance. It makes them anxious and depressed. This weight
stigma influences the overall health of individual. To address this stigma, the perspective of
people must be changed towards the topic (Simmonds and et.al., 2016). This is not possible
without help from professional nurses. The health care service providers as well as community
members must assure that obese people also deserves the equal level of respect and care. They
must be provided with necessary support so that barriers related to weight stigma can be
overcome. It will assure that necessary medical attention is provided to obese people.