A Report on Adult Obesity (45-75) as a Public Health Issue in Newham

This report addresses the public health problem of adult obesity within the 45 to 75 age group in the London Borough of Newham, where obesity rates are among the highest in the capital. It highlights obesity as a complex disease with significant health risks, including type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and fatty liver diseases. The report analyzes the epidemiological data, revealing that obesity rates have tripled since 1975 and are disproportionately higher in deprived communities and certain ethnic groups. Socioeconomic factors, such as low income and limited access to healthy food options, are identified as major contributors. The consequences of obesity include increased healthcare costs, reduced quality of life, and various health complications. The report emphasizes the need for interventions focused on dietary behaviors, reducing sugar consumption, promoting physical activity, and building community resilience to support healthier lifestyle choices. Desklib provides access to this report and a wealth of other study resources for students.

Adult obesity target
population group 45 to 75
Newham London borough

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
As per World Health Organisation health is a state of complete physical, mental and
social well being and not only absence of disease. Health of an individual is essential to live their
life to fullest. When a person adopts a healthy lifestyle, their body remains active and mind is
fresh. It is important as living a healthy life will result in longevity and regenerate both mind and
body. Healthy living helps an individual to enjoy all aspects of their life. Maintaining healthy
lifestyle provides individual to avoid diseases related to their physical health such as obesity.
Obesity means a complex disease comprises of enormous amount of body fat. It is a medical
issue that maximises risk of other diseases and more health problems such as heart disease, high
blood pressure, diabetes etc. Generally obesity is result of inheritance, environmental or
physiological elements mixed with diet and exercise choices. This issue is a major concern as
extra pounds in body often leads them on path of health problems like diabetes and high
cholesterol in early age. This can be measure if their body mass index for age distribution is
higher than 95 percent.
This assignment presents understanding of public health problem of obesity, its
determinants and defining the problems associated with it. It identifies what needs to be change
and appropriate measures to intervene. The assignment covers stakeholder engagement,
resources and input required to solve the problem of obesity and evaluation of necessary
measures with an appropriate action plan. The population that is considered in this assignment to
identify adult obesity in target population group ranges between 45 to 75 years. In Newham
London Borough adult obesity rates are third highest in the capital. One in four of adult of 45
and above age group in Borough are considered obese according to a report of NHS (Shaw,
2018). According to a survey around thousand people were diagnosed for obesity for every one
100,000 population in London Borough (Brooke, 2019).
Obesity is becoming one of the major serious public health issue where authorities are
making efforts to fight risk factors of obesity. Risk factors includes type 2 diabetes which occurs
when a person's blood glucose gets too high. High blood sugar leads to issues like heart diseases,
kidney problems, nerve damage etc. Another risk is increasing problem of sleep apnea where a
person finds it difficult to breathe properly while sleeping. Moreover, fatty liver diseases are also
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a threat where extra fat builds up in person's liver due to obesity. In this assignment, the focus is
on intervention measures on how obesity can be controlled and cured through addressing dietary
behaviours and reducing consumption of sugar in food & beverages.
Background
Obesity as health problem worldwide has tripled since 1975. In 2016, people with age 18
or older contributes to overweight by more than 1.9 billion. From those, over 650 million were
obese. 39 % of adults of age 18 years and below were overweight and 13% were obese. A health
survey in England 2019 estimates that 28% adults in England are obese and further 36% are
overweight. Around 63% of adults are overweight and half of them are suffering from obesity.
Adults living in deprived part of country are likely to be obese than those residing in less
deprived parts (NHS, 2022). Of obese adults around one in eight were morbidly obese. Since
1993, proportion of adult in England who are obese drives from 52.9% to 64%.
Epidemiological
Obesity is a problem that have an essential impact on health impairment and reduces
quality of life. It is a major public health and economic issue of global significance. The best
precise way to measure obesity in adults is by utilising Body Mass Index for age percentiles. It
can be calculated by dividing an individual's weight in kilograms by square of height in meters.
BMI is recommended by the National Institute of health and care excellence as practical estimate
of overweight on adults and young people. There are also other measures including neck
circumference which is considered reliable for identifying adults with high obesity. Another is
Rohrer's Ponderal Index which measures obesity by dividing weight in kilograms by height in
meter cubed. Its has the ability to predict percentage body fat in adults.
A health survey in England in 2021 entails that half of its population is classified as obese
for that reason number of health related issues are also increasing which are reducing life
expectancy of people. Around 63% are considered as overweight which constitutes over 35
million people. Where 56% of adults admits to lose weight which makes it one in five UK adults
(Formulate Health, 2021).
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The age group that is most likely to be overweight in 2019 was between 65 to 74.
presence of overweight was more than 70% in age group from 45 and above.
(Source: Obesity statistics)
As shown above, men are more exposed than women to become obese. But obesity level
in women are above men as women have 29% and men have 27% level of obesity.
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Illustration 1: Obesity statistics

The problem of obesity at Newham London Borough has seen rise with rise in fast food
outlets. Newham ranked third worst borough for obesity with 43.6% of 45 to 60 years old were
considered as obese which is result of fast food outlets. Newham is becoming proof of how an
overload of takeaways can help poor eating choices. In Newham London Borough, combination
of low income, social deprivation and fast food stores has contributes in creates problem of
obesity to flourish (Mathur, 2019).
(Source: Newham’s adult obesity levels rise alongside increased access to fast food)
Distribution statistics
More than half of London's adult population is classified as overweight or obese less than
the national average.
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Illustration 2: Newham’s adult obesity levels rise alongside increased access to fast food

(Source: The London Intelligence | Health and wellbeing)
Obesity poses major threat both to person's health and and health services. It can
maximise the problems of other health diseases which sometimes also leads to mental health
issues such as depression and low self confidence. This places extra pressure on National Health
Security at country level as annual spend on treatment of obesity by NHS exceeds the funds
spend on police or other services. In 2018, 56% adults in London were classed as obese as they
have BMI of over 25 (Barrett, Brown and Belcher, 2019). Some of the lowest level of adult
weight issues are found in central and west London while outer east London has the boroughs
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Illustration 3: The London Intelligence | Health and wellbeing

with high share of adults who are obese. In England, the obesity rate is particularly higher for
women which is 29% than men which is 27%. But for both genders obesity rates in England
have rises by a similar quantity from 1990s. From time period of 1993 to 2019, obesity rates
among women drive from 16% to 29% while for men it rises from 13% to 27%. In North east of
England, Yorkshire and Humber, the East Midlands and London, women have significantly
higher obesity ratio than men. Among these, 20% lives in the most deprived areas of England
where women part is 39% and men rate is lower than 30% (Corfe and Shepherd, 2021).
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Socioeconomy and Ethinicity
No individual is immune to obesity but various health and socio-economic inequalities
plays a essential role in susceptibility and obesity. In England, around three quarters of adults
ranging between 45 to 75 years are overweight or obese. Obesity in England is more exposed to
deprived communities such as Halton majorly in Windmill Hill, Halton Lea and Ditton. A survey
found out that men are more likely than women to be overweight or obese where 68% of men
and 60% of women are overweight (House of Common Library, 2022).
(Source: Obesity Statistics)
It has been evaluated that in most deprived areas in England, prevalence of obesity is 9%
higher than least deprived areas. In Newham London Borough, people have low pay which
resulted in unhealthy eating habits. The influence of deprivation on obesity is deeply concerning
and with adults in most deprived regions have double prevalence of overweight compared to
least deprived. In 2018, the prevalence of overweight was 27% in adult age between 45 to 70 in
deprived areas and 13% in least deprived area (Royal College of Physicians, 2020). The gap here
is enormous and is constantly growing with an increase from 8.5% in 2006 to 13.9% in 2018. It
has been evaluated that socio-economic elements such as under employment or poverty
contributes majorly in driving obesity and poor health.
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Illustration 4: Obesity Statistics

Consequences of obesity can impact an individuals life severely in form of cardiovascular
disease, type 2 diabetes and musculosketal diseases like osteoarthritis. More widely obesity has
serious impact on economic development as the overall cost of obesity to broader society is
estimated at around 27 pound billion. One of the Barrett. S., Brown. R and Belcher. E.
2019major cause of obesity in Newham London is lack of exercise where when people get to a
certain weight they feel unable to exercise. Failing to address issues posed by obesity problem
place a high burden on NHS resources. It is evaluated that NHS spent 6.1 pound billion on
obesity and its related health problems in 2015 (Public Health England, 2017)
(Source: Health matters: obesity and the food environment)
Obesity has the power to harm people's life prospects, their self esteem and their mental
health. People feel discriminated at public places due to overweight and feels shy to exercise.
The UK wide NHS costs dimension to obesity is predicted to reach 9.7 pound billion by 2050
with more costs to society estimated to reach up to 49.9 billion pound per year. A report by The
Marmot review presents that less income, social deprivation and ethnicity have an essential
influence on chances of becoming overweight. There is a robust relationship between deprivation
and adulthood obesity. Issue of obesity prevalent in most deprived 10% of adult is almost twice
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Illustration 5: Health matters: obesity and the food environment

to least deprived 10%. Also, there are more fast food outlets in deprived areas than in more
affluent areas making it easy for peopel to get unhealthy food easily resulting in adding to
problem of obesity and other diseases.
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Illustration 6: Health matters: obesity and the food environment

(Source: Health matters: obesity and the food environment)
It has been assessed that people from specific ethnic groups, for instance south Asians are
more possible to get obese and have a higher susceptibility to certain problems related to excess
weight.
As per Public Health England's data has showed results of how extra weights in adults is
not equally distributed between social groups. In many areas of England which are deprived,
prevalence of excess weight is 13% higher than areas with least deprived. In people with
disabilities, surplus weight is 11% is more than adults without disabilities. It has been seen that
black people have high rates of obesity and white British people have higher rates of excess
weight compared to other group of ethnic. Education is also major factor as adults with no
qualifications shows 12% point higher rate of overweight.
(Source: Obesity Statistics)
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Illustration 7: Obesity Statistics