Research Proposal: Exploring the Global Rise of Childhood Obesity

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Research Methodology Proposal: Childhood Obesity

Table of Content
1. Introduction:...........................................................................................................................3
1.1 Research rationale:...............................................................................................................4
1.2 Research Aim:......................................................................................................................4
1.3 Research objectives:.............................................................................................................4
2. Literature Review:..................................................................................................................4
3. Methodology:.........................................................................................................................8
3.1 Research outline:..................................................................................................................8
3.2 Research philosophy:...........................................................................................................9
3.3 Research approach:..............................................................................................................9
3.4 Data collection method:.....................................................................................................10
3.5 Ethical consideration..........................................................................................................10
3.6 Gantt Chart.........................................................................................................................11
4. Reflections and Resources:..................................................................................................11
5. References............................................................................................................................14

1. Introduction:
Obesity is one of the major cause major life-threatening conditions and it could be defined as
the excess fat accumulation which is contributing to an increase in weight at an abnormal
rate. The global obesity scenario is quite alarming and it has been taking shape of a silent
killer of the modern world. There is various life-threatening and major ailments are
associated with obesity such as diabetics, heart diseases, and Liver ailment etcetera. The
percentage of obese children has been increasing drastically and it is evident that this
condition hugely contributing to child death and the average child health standard has been
radically falling at an early age. The typical definition of childhood obesity is a condition
where the weight of a child increasing 125% of the normal weight. The exact definition of
obesity in a child has been directed by WHO and IOFT which states that the obesity of a
child could be measured through the evaluation of BMI.
WHO acknowledged the child obesity as one of the most neglected conditions among
children that contributes 30-40% increase in child death at a global perspective. The major
impact of childhood obesity could be evident in the advanced part of the globe where the
majority of the child suffering from this condition and associated with major life-threatening
ailments. Currently, child obesity is one of the major causes of child death and it has been
taking shape of an epidemic in a slow but steady manner. The steady increase in the
percentage of child obesity came to picture at the end of 1971 and the initially affected
regions are confined to developed countries, urban areas whereas with the passage of time it
has been spreading into developing countries as well. The rate of child obesity in the UK has
been taking a leading place in global child obesity scenario and obese child percentage
increased to 20% in the last few decades. The most affected children in the UK are from
secondary-school and it has been reached to 23% till the end of 2016.

1.1 Research rationale:
WHO identified childhood obesity as the most neglected condition among children that
contributes to child health deterioration and child health. Obesity significantly contributes to
major ailments and death which need to be explored and researched. There is a major scope
of research in this sector which might contribute to the obesity control plan. There is a great
deal of urgency to identify major causes and factors that contribute to the rapid increase in
child obesity rate and associated ailments. The focus of the current research project is to look
into the factors and scenarios that contribute to childhood obesity.
1.2 Research Aim:
The aim of the current research project is to identify major causes and factors that contribute
to the rapid increase in child obesity rate in global perspective.
1.3 Research objectives:
 To identify major causes of childhood obesity from a global perspective
 To understand the current condition of the child obesity
 To identify a suitable preventive approach
 To identify socio-economic factors that contribute to the child obesity
2. Literature Review:
Childhood obesity is defined by the unrestrained development of fat which severely affects a
child's health. To determine the obesity and to seek medical aid, the Body Mass Index (BMI)
is often reported by the medical practitioner (Locke et al, 2015). This method is applicable to
the children above two years of age. The Body Mass Index rising above 85 % is generally

considered overweight and needs medical assistance. Childhood obesity, however, has
reached an epidemic level in both developing and developed countries. This has become a
serious issue globally and often invites further complications for the patients left untreated or
unchecked. Many factors are responsible for the rapid increase in childhood obesity.
Research shows that 1 out of 5 children are obese particularly because of low activity and
maintenance of poor lifestyle.
Childhood obesity results for many reasons. It may be because of a child hailing from an
obese family. In other words, a child whose parents are overweight is likely to inherit obesity
from his family. This is particularly true in the modern milieu which offers high-calorie foods
and minimizes the scope of the rigorous physical exercise. Secondly, obesity leaps up from a
poor lifestyle. Children are often prone to fast foods and instant foods which increase the fat
level terrifyingly (Katzmarzyk et al, 2015). Along with the habit of consuming high-calorie
foods, regular exercise is hardly maintained due to lack of time and energy. The burden of
education and negligence of parents often makes a child fatigued and unenthusiastic about
physical exercise. This, however, affects a child severely. The global picture of children in
modern society is their spending hours on television viewing which badly affects their health.
The more the children watch television, the more they gain weight. This is primarily because
of two reasons. Firstly, sitting idly for hours certainly increases obesity and secondly, it has
been noticed that television viewing prompts children to consume more food as compared to
the other time of their daily activities. In fact, the advertisement on television often time lures
children to form habits of consuming high-calorie foods. Hence, many countries are already
launching a ban on advertising fast food products on children's television programme
(Moraes et al, 2017). Sweden and Norway are already maintaining a virtual ban on
advertising to children. Belgium, Denmark, and Italy are also into the list. These countries are
requesting the other states of the European Union to do the same. But in countries like

Australia, Newzeland, US and UK advertising on children's television programmes is least
regulated. Hence, the obesity rates of children are higher in these countries.
Childhood obesity hails many diseases for children in the near future. A child might be
attacked by diabetes due to obesity. He or she might experience severe cardiac disease due to
the escalation of blood pressure, blood sugar, triglyceride, cholesterol and abdominal fat
(Blühe et al, 2014). Obesity also hails disease like asthma. Children who are overweight are
likely to have asthma and might also experience severe sleep disorder. Due to excess fat, they
might experience apnea too. Apnea, however, is a serious sleep disorder which occurs when a
person experiences continuous breathing interruption during sleep. This might lead to
complete heart failure resulting in the death of the patient. Moreover, high obesity is the
cause of fatty liver, a condition in which excess fat is deposited in the liver and might cause
severe liver damage. Obese children are more likely to experience a bone fracture than
children of normal weight. Also, obese children suffer from psychological disorder due to
being bullied by the people around. This might lead to depression and isolate them from
society.
Thus, childhood obesity must be discouraged and must be taken seriously by parents and
society. School, however, plays a vital role in reducing childhood obesity. Children must be
encouraged to participate in various physical activities like sports and exercise, instead of
burdening them with class works and home works. They must be encouraged to run and play
in open space instead of spending hours in mobile games, watching television and indolent
domestic activities. Parents too must take initiatives to help children overcome obesity. They
must encourage children to reduce weight through various processes and ensure a healthy
living. This can be best achieved through lifestyle modification. In fact, lifestyle modification
is the most essential need for an obese child. Parents must discourage a child to stay away
from fast food which generally contains high calories. They must counsel a child to shun

various soft drinks, sweets, and beverages. A child must be encouraged to consume plenty of
fruits and vegetables to avoid being overweight (Singh et al, 2014). Sleep is also essential.
Sound sleep must be recommended for a healthy body and mind. Above all regular
monitoring of weight also helps to opt for early precaution against the rapid increase of
obesity. Once, a child shows a remarkable sign of obesity, medical help must be sought for to
check the overweight. Children must not be bullied for being fat. It destroys their confidence
and isolates from being part of the world around. Such a task is to be undertaken by both
parents and teachers along with friends and neighbors. It must be remembered that obesity is
a severe disease which can ensure multiple diseases in the near future. It is never a deformity
of a child which demands heal up instead of being harassed mentally with various pranks
launched upon them. A child is the future of a nation. A child must be taken care of, must be
inspired for a healthy lifestyle to remain both physically and mentally fit. In the United
States, however, data from 2015-2016 shows that 1 in 5 school-age children has been
suffering from obesity (Imes and Burke, 2014). Even in Asian countries like India,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, overweight and obesity are
taking shape of an epidemic due to the maintenance of an unhealthy lifestyle. The
government must be more active to fight against the alarming situation and help children
grow in a healthy atmosphere. Children must be taught in school how to maintain a healthy
lifestyle with proper diet, exercise, and habits.

3. Methodology:
The suitability of the research method is quite essential in the present case. The vastness of
the topic and region-specific approach makes the research process critical in the contextual
discussion. Therefore, choosing an appropriate research methodology is essential in this case.
The research methodology constitutes of various segments such as research outline, research
philosophy, research approach, data collection method, and ethical consideration and Gantt
chart etcetera. In the contextual discussion, the researcher needs to adopt appropriate research
philosophy, research approach and data collection method to facilitate the scientific analysis
of the data associated with child obesity which eventually contribute to the essential aspects
of the current topic and contributes to deduce the research objective.
3.1 Research outline:
Outlining the research draft is an essential part of the successful research methodology. The
researcher needs to choose the quantitative research approach in the contextual discussion
which would be supporting the secondary research approach which is suitable in the present
scenario. The secondary research approach enables the researcher to look into various
resources available in journals, websites, and online articles to authenticate the data in this
case which helps to build a general idea about the current state associated with the topic. The
main objective of the search approach is to identify major sources associated with the topic
and results that has a huge contribution to child health deterioration. The researcher needs to
adopt secondary data collection method in the current context to identify major sources of
data associated with the topic. There is a major hurdle associated with the research outline
development that is the vastness of the topic. Child obesity is a global issue which needs to be
analysed for the understanding of the regional factors associated with the topic. The factors
contributing to the child obesity are region specific, therefore confined within a region may

deduce contradictory output which would be detrimental for the research approach in the
current context. Researcher significantly adopts a secondary data collection method to collect
data available in secondary resources which is not region specific approach and hence an
overview of the topic can be achieved through data analysis of the secondary data.
3.2 Research philosophy:
It is a singularity approach where the data need to be collected associated with the research
topic in order to conduct the research. There are various research philosophies currently in
practice which need to be incorporated in the current context to direct the research process in
order to achieve the research objective and desirable outcome. The three major research
philosophies associated with current research practice are positivism, constructivism, and
pragmatism. The positivist philosophy is directly associated with the quantitative analysis of
the data collected from the secondary research approach which is subjected to analyse on the
basis of facts and reality. The constructivism philosophy states the research approach as the
combination of the human mind and reality which construct the research output in order to
achieve desired results. The pragmatism is the combination of positivism and constructivism
philosophy which is not associated with any single philosophy. Both the approaches such as
quantitative and qualitative analysis are essential in the present philosophical approach.
3.3 Research approach:
There are two major research approaches associated with current research methodologies
such as inductive and deductive approach where the inductive approach focuses on deducing
fresh hypothesis suitable for a current topic which is based on data analysis and analytical
output. Whereas the deductive approach adopts any existing theories associated with the
current topic and designs the research approach in such a manner to facilitate the existing
theory associated with the current topic. The current topic of the contextual discussion is to

understand the impact of child obesity and the corresponding impact on the average child
health in global perspective. The researcher needs to adopt deductive the main aim of the
research approach is to direct the research process towards the scientific and accurate output
to facilitate the research in the current context. The researcher needs to adopt the deductive
approach in the present case to support the secondary data collection methodology.
3.4 Data collection method:
The vastness of the topic and regional specific approach in the present case enables the
researcher to adopt secondary data collection method to facilitate the current research
approach. The main objective of the secondary data collection is to identify authenticated
resources associated with the current research and to conduct a detail data collection in
various articles, journals, online sources to facilitate the on-going research process. There are
two major steps associated with the data collection method such as identification of authentic
resources and collection of essential data necessary for the data analysis process in the current
context. The collected data need to be analysed and processes to develop the desired
outcome in the current concept which enables the research to link the research objective with
the final findings.
3.5 Ethical consideration
There is various ethical consideration associated with research work in the current context.
The current research approach needs to collect sensitive and statistical data for the analysis of
the current topic which needs to be in line with Data Protection Act 1998 which states that
the collect data is the responsibility of the researcher or the organisation. Any sort of data
leakage subjected to inconsistency with the data protection act and therefore legal
consequences need to be faced by the researcher or the organisation associated with the data
collection process. The current research approach significantly chosen secondary data

collection technique which is the collection of data published in various online journals,
articles, and books. The authenticity of the data needs to be verified to maintain the
legitimacy of the research in the current context.
3.6 Gantt Chart
Activity 30/03-
02/04
04/04-
10/04
12/04-
20/04
21/04-
26/4
27/04-
30/04
03/05-
10/05
12/05-
17/05
Understanding the research
topic
Development of the
literature review on the
basis of authenticated
secondary data
Development of research
methodology
Data analysis of the
collected information from
authenticated secondary
resources
Finding the data associated
with the current topic
Development of conclusion
and recommendation
Development of a reflective
report
Reviewing final draft and
development of abstract and
acknowledgement

4. Reflections and Resources:
The above-mentioned research approach significantly attributed to the global scenario
associated with child obesity. The child obesity is proved to be one of the major concerns for
WHO which have been taking shape of a silent epidemic in global perspective. The average
heath of a child between 11 to 15 is most affected by obesity due to various contributing
factors such as rapid urbanization, rapid adaptation of the fast food industry and modern
unhealthy lifestyle and practices. Child obesity in the global scenario which has been taking
shape of a global epidemic that needs to be controlled and monitored in order to reduce the
detrimental effect on the child health and overall wellbeing. Advanced countries like America
and UK etcetera are mostly affected where 30-40% of the children between 11 to 15 years
age group. This age group is mostly effected which need to be targeted in the current context
and the general health parameters of the children falling below the standard. In the UK,
children belong to the secondary education level are mostly affected due to urbanization and
rapidly increasing fast food industry. The overall living standard of these children has been
worsening rapidly due to increasing stress and living standard. The main objective of the
current research is to identify key factors associated with the worsening condition in the
current context
The main objective of the current research approach is to look into the matter with an in-
depth analytical process which eventually contributes to the development of the hypothesis
based on previous theories or findings associated with child obesity. There are various
secondary resources such as online journals, books and articles are need to be consulted for
the collection of data which enables the researcher to develop final outcome associated with
the current context. There is a major hindrance associated with the research approach such as
the adaptation of the primary data collection through surveys. The child obesity is a global
issue and region-specific factors are attributing to the child obesity scenario. The outcome in