Report on Childhood Obesity | Assignment

Running head: REPORT
Research Skills Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Literature review........................................................................................................................2
Methodology..............................................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................6
Findings......................................................................................................................................9
Reflection.................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12
Appendix..................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
According to Ludwig (2018) childhood obesity has reached epidemic scales in both
developing and developed nations. The condition typically refers to accumulation of excess
body fat in children that makes them gain extra pounds, thereby increasing their risk of
suffering from chronic illnesses in adulthood such as, high cholesterol, cardiovascular
complications and diabetes mellitus (Kumar and Kelly 2017). This report will explore the
prevalence and factors of childhood obesity. This investigation will encompass conducting a
literature review, using electronic databases, and extracting articles that have been published
within a timeframe of 5 years. The table given below highlights the SMART goals:
S Childhood obesity
M Prevalence and factors
A Literature review
R Electronic database search
T Recent publication (< 5 years)
Table 1- SMART goals
Literature review
Conolly and Neave (2016) provided an overview of the prevalence of childhood
obesity in England in the year 2015 by discussing findings obtained from the 2015 Health
Survey for England that comprised of 3591 children. The methodology encompassed using a
self-completion questionnaire on correct weight or desire to change. Findings from this
article suggested that 14% children aged between 2-15 years were overweight, with
additional 14% being obese. Higher number of boys were obese, compared to the female
counterparts (15% vs. 13% respectively). According to Nuffield Trust (2019) an estimated
12.8% children of the age group 4-5 years were overweight, compared to 9.5% children who

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were obese in 2017-18. One in five kids aged 10-11 years were obese during the same year,
accounting for 20.1%. Furthermore, children residing in deprived regions were more
susceptible to obesity. Around 6.4% kids aged 4-5 years, living in least deprived regions were
obese, in contrast to 12.4% who resided in most deprived regions
(Researchbriefings.parliament.uk 2019). Highest obesity rates for reception ranged from 4.9-
14.4% (Kingston upon Thames and Knowsley, respectively). Likewise, in year 6, it ranged
from 11.4-29.7% (Richmond upon Thames and Barking and Dagenham, respectively) (NHS
Digital 2019).
In addition, childhood obesity prevalence augmented with an increase in age. 11%
children aged 2-4 years were obese, in contrast to 16% aged 13-15 years. Wilkie et al. (2016)
conducted a cross-sectional study amid 374 children aged 9-11 years and found that sleep
duration and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) were correlated with
decreased odds of obesity. However, there existed a positive correlation between increased
odds of obesity with increased screen time (ST) and poor dietary patterns. Thus, the
researchers concluded that children who engage in sedentary activity and do not participate in
physical exercise are more likely to become obese. Findings from a longitudinal study that
recruited kids from the UK Millennium Cohort suggested that the presence of television in
bedroom is significantly associated with an increased fat mass index (FMI), and body mass
index (BMI). In addition, it also contributes to a greater risk of being overweight amongst
children aged 11 years (relative risk (RR) for boys=1.21, 95% CI 1.07–1.36; RR for
girls=1.31, 95% CI 1.15–1.48). Hence, having a television in bedroom makes the children
obese and overweight (Heilmann et al. 2017).
Wilkie et al. (2018) conducted another cross-sectional study on around 425 children
belonging to the same age group from South West of England. They confirmed that while
parental support positively mediates performance of light intensity physical activity,

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prolonged computer use prevents children from being physically active. Furthermore, schools
having 25-49% pupils who attended sport/PA clubs had more children who demonstrated
active participation in MVPA. The findings therefore demonstrated that home, individual and
school environment largely govern childhood obesity. Wilsher et al. (2016) observed the
correlation between weight of children and the annual deals of unhealthy food products from
the supermarkets. It was found that there existed a statistically significant association
between unhealthy food sales and prevalence of overweight and obesity amid children. The
novel study indicated that increased sales of unhealthy food products from supermarkets
directly increased the risk of children to consume those foods and become obese.
Moreover, Turbutt, Richardson and Pettinger (2019) also stated that greater number of
hoot food takeaways are located in remote and deprived regions of England. The researchers
conducted a systematic review by extracting articles from 12 electronic databases, in order to
determine the effects of hot food takeaway. The findings suggested that children living in
deprived neighbourhoods demonstrate an increased likelihood of consuming more fast food,
which in turn increases their BMI, thus contributing to their obesity. Therefore, findings from
this literature review suggest that sedentary lifestyle, less physical activity, more screen time,
residence in deprived areas, television in bedroom, and consumption of unhealthy food
increase risk of childhood obesity.
Methodology
The basic purpose of conducting this literature review was that it helped in developing
the foundation of knowledge on the prevalence and causative factors of childhood obesity in
England. A literature review was conducted since it offered a comprehensive summary of
scholarly information from what had been already published in this domain, until the present
date (Randolph 2018).

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A three-phase process was adopted while searching the articles that were namely, (i)
planning, (ii) conducting, and (iii) reporting. The first step of this literature review consisted
of identifying and developing appropriate key words and search terms that were pertinent of
the phenomenon being investigated. During formulation of the search terms that facilitated
proper retrieval of scholarly evidences, the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
(CRD) published guidelines were considered, thereby providing assistance in the electronic
search (Townsend et al. 2013). According to the guidelines, all kinds of abbreviations,
synonyms and variance in spelling were taken into consideration. The electronic database of
CINAHL and Google scholar were comprehensively searched for recovering scientific
articles. Conducting a manual search of the bibliography and citation helped in exploring
evidences that were relevant to the research question and might have been excluded from the
database. The key phrases and search terms used were ‘childhood obesity’, ‘juvenile obesity’,
‘prevalence’, ‘occurrence’, ‘frequency’, ‘statistics’, ‘England’, ‘English’, ‘risk factors’,
‘causes’, and ‘reasons’.
These search terms were combined using the boolean operators ‘AND’ and ‘OR’.
While ‘AND’ retrieved articles that contained all combined terms, ‘OR’ resulted in extraction
of articles that contained either of the terms, thereby narrowing the results (McGowan et al.
2016). Development of inclusion and exclusion criteria have been found imperative for the
identification of prospective scholarly evidences that would provide a definite answer to the
research question. Grey literature have been identified as a significant source of evidence
owing to the exclusivity of the content published. It generally refers to all information
published in different levels of academic, government, industry and business in print and
electronic formats that are not governed by commercial publishing (Auger 2017). The
credibility of the results were evaluated by checking if the articles had been published in

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peer-reviewed journals or government websites. The table given below highlights the
eligibility criteria that had been framed for the literature review:
Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria
Articles available in English language Articles available in foreign languages
Articles printed on or after 2016 Articles printed before 2016
Articles that focused on childhood obesity
in England
Articles that focused on childhood obesity
in other nations
Primary and secondary research Manuscripts, unpublished articles
Peer reviewed articles Case series
Grey literature Clinical guidelines
Table 2- Inclusion and exclusion criteria for literature review
Discussion
It can be stated from the evidences given above that childhood obesity is a matter of
concern in England. Since the year 2010, the prevalence of childhood obesity has been found
less for reception group, in comparison to children who belong to year 6. The image given
below highlights the proportion of obese boys and girls in England, in the year 2015.

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Figure 1- BMI status by sex
Source- (Conolly and Neave 2016)
The positive correlation between age and childhood obesity among males and females
in 2015 can be explained by the graphical representation given below:
Figure 2- Prevalence of obesity, by age and sex
Source- (Conolly and Neave 2016)