Obesity in the UK: Causes, Interventions, and Success Rates

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IDENTIFY THE MAIN CAUSES OF OBSESITY,
INTERVENTIONS AND THEIR OF SUCCESS
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Obesity is the common issue in the contemporary society of UK and it leaves negative impact on
the health of people. It is found that modern generation is fond of in-taking high calorie
contained food such as soft drinks, ready to eat meal and many others. These are the main
reasons of increasing the number of people, suffering from obesity. The thesis statement of study
is to analyse the main causes of obesity and appropriate interventions will be provided along
with its success rate. Different theoretical concept such as trait theory will also be included in
this study in an appropriate manner for getting fruitful outcome.
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Discussion
As per the viewpoint of Jackson et al. (2015), the main cause of obesity is that people take
highly calorie contained food regularly. The consumption of fat and calorie is increased day by
day as they do not burn it appropriately by doing physical activity such as exercise. As a result,
most of the people are suffering from obesity. In the modern era, all over, 62% people are
suffering from this disease. People are too much busy in their work; however, they need to work
by seating. As such, physical activity is not monitored in their work. Therefore, around 65%
male and 53% female adults are suffering from this disease (cancerresearchuk.org, 2019). The
reason of taking highly calorific food is that at present, foods are very cheaper and tastier than
previous decade. Advertisement of foods using its images attracts people easily and it is the
result of obesity of people in modern era.
On the other hand, in case of children, they have the habit of watching television (Allender et al.,
2015). Organisations, who provide junk food, advertise their products repeatedly in the
television. As a result, it easily attracts the children and they want to have this food. Thus,
around 26.2% children are suffering from obesity (cancerresearchuk.org, 2019). In addition to
this, lack of knowledge related to diet is another reason of obesity. Many a times it is
monitored that people do not know their requirement and eat larger than regular requirement. It
leads the person to disease of obesity. Adults drink alcohol or highly sugar contained beverages,
which the reason of obesity.
As argued by Joslyn and Haider-Markel (2019), apart from poor diet, lack of knowledge, lack of
physical activity or having highly calorific food, genetics reason is also there. Prader-Willi
syndrome is a genetic disease and in this case, people are not able to lose their body weight. In
addition to large appetite does not help people to lose weight and it can be inherited from their
parents. As per trait theory, it indicates that habit of people is also the reason of suffering from
obesity (Kulendran et al., 2017). Many children are there, who have poor eating habits. This
environmental factor is the reason of disease of obesity.
However, as suggested by Xu and Xue (2016), medical reasons are there, which creates obesity
of people in the contemporary society. Hypothyroidism is the disease, which provides birth of
the disease obesity. In this context, enough hormones are not produced by thyroid gland and it
creates the issue. On the other hand, if people have Cushing’s syndrome, they are suffering
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from over production of steroid hormones, which creates obesity. Few medicines of Diabetes
can create obesity also.
In order to mitigate the issue related to obesity, various interventions are there such as surgical
intervention, pharmacological intervention and lifestyle intervention (Wang et al., 2015).
Lifestyle intervention includes different aspects such as maintaining proper diet, exercise and
many others. If people do exercise regularly, they can easily reduce their weight. For example, as
per the report of NHS (National Health Service), it is found that around 29% adults do exercise
regularly for getting relief from the disease of obesity and they are able to get fruitful outcome
(files.digital.nhs.uk, 2018). Therefore, it can be deduced that exercise is an effective intervention
for this disease. Using this intervention, they can easily control their disease.
In addition to this, proper diet is an effective intervention for obesity. People should consider
water as the replacement sugar contained beverages. Sugar is the source of high calorie and it is
harmful for health. Therefore, drinking water instead of sweet beverage is the way best
intervention for obesity. In this context, government of UK has traduced with the concept of
sugar tax. Thus, companies under soft drinks industry are compelled to reduce sugar level in
their products (cancerresearchuk.org, 2019). Obesity can be controlled in an appropriate manner.
For example, it is found that using this intervention, obesity rate among people in UK is reduced.
The obesity of adults was 35% and now it is around 32% of entire population (Adams et al.,
2016).
In case of children, obesity can be controlled by changing their food habits. As commented by
Bleich et al. (2018), most of children are fond of junk food and it gradually increases energy
level of their body, which leads them to the disease of obesity. In this context, psychological
intervention is applicable. Parents of children, suffering from obesity, can consult psychologist
so that children are able to reduce their body weight. In this intervention, various therapies are
there such as relaxation therapy, emotion-focused therapy and hypnotherapy. As mentioned
by Showell et al. (2015), stress such as education pressure can increase the body weight of
children. In this case psychologist tries to talk to them for making them feel relaxed. It is the
effective way. Hypnotherapy helps to change the habit of children and it helps to reduce the
body weight of them.
In case of surgical intervention, bariatric surgery is conducted for reducing weight of people.
As commented by Gloy et al. (2016), this process incorporates procedures of sleeve gastrectomy,
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gastric bypass, biliopancreatic bypass and gastric banding. However, in this surgery, only 0.2%
people are eligible as it is not appropriate for the health. In time of analysing its success rate, it is
found out that around 50-60% people are able to lose their body weight thorough gastric bypass,
whereas 70% success rate is found in biliopancreatic bypass. As argued by Douglas et al. (2015),
surgical process is not applicable for long-term purpose. In this context, diet and exercise can be
considered as the mostly effective intervention for obesity.
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Conclusion
Therefore, in order to draw the end line of this study it can be deduced that present lifestyle of
people is the main reason for their obesity. Due to having hectic schedule, they do not have time
for exercise and it increases their body weight. On the other hand, many people are there, who do
not have proper idea related to diet. According to the perception of trait theory, it is found that
mostly children are suffering from obesity for this reason. Apart from that, genetics and medical
reasons are also there related to the disease of obesity. In this study, interventions are also
mentioned such as psychological intervention, lifestyle intervention and surgical intervention.
For analysing the success rate, lifestyle intervention is the most effective way and it has no side
effect. Thus, throughout the study, thesis statement of this essay is met in an appropriate manner.
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Reference list
Adams, J., Mytton, O., White, M. and Monsivais, P., 2016. Why are some population
interventions for diet and obesity more equitable and effective than others? The role of individual
agency. PLoS medicine, 13(4), p.e1001990.
Allender, S., Owen, B., Kuhlberg, J., Lowe, J., Nagorcka-Smith, P., Whelan, J. and Bell, C.,
2015. A community based systems diagram of obesity causes. PloS one, 10(7), p.e0129683.
Bleich, S.N., Vercammen, K.A., Zatz, L.Y., Frelier, J.M., Ebbeling, C.B. and Peeters, A., 2018.
Interventions to prevent global childhood overweight and obesity: a systematic review. The
Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 6(4), pp.332-346.
cancerresearchuk.org 2019, Reason of Obesity, Available at:
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/obesity-weight-and-cancer/
what-causes-obesity [Accessed on: 12th March 2019]
Douglas, I.J., Bhaskaran, K., Batterham, R.L. and Smeeth, L., 2015. Bariatric surgery in the
United Kingdom: a cohort study of weight loss and clinical outcomes in routine clinical
care. PLoS medicine, 12(12), p.e1001925.
files.digital.nhs.uk 2018, People do exercise for reducing obesity, Available at:
https://files.digital.nhs.uk/publication/0/0/obes-phys-acti-diet-eng-2018-rep.pdf [Accessed on:
12th March 2019]
Gloy, V.L., Briel, M., Bhatt, D.L., Kashyap, S.R., Schauer, P.R., Mingrone, G., Bucher, H.C.
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Jackson, S.E., Johnson, F., Croker, H. and Wardle, J., 2015. Weight perceptions in a population
sample of English adolescents: cause for celebration or concern?. International journal of
obesity, 39(10), p.1488.
Joslyn, M.R. and Haider-Markel, D.P., 2019. Perceived causes of obesity, emotions, and
attitudes about Discrimination Policy. Social Science & Medicine, 223, pp.97-103.
Kulendran, M., Borovoi, L., Purkayastha, S., Darzi, A. and Vlaev, I., 2017. Impulsivity predicts
weight loss after obesity surgery. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 13(6), pp.1033-
1040.
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Wang, Y., Cai, L., Wu, Y., Wilson, R.F., Weston, C., Fawole, O., Bleich, S.N., Cheskin, L.J.,
Showell, N.N., Lau, B.D. and Chiu, D.T., 2015. What childhood obesity prevention programmes
work? A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Obesity reviews, 16(7), pp.547-565.
Xu, S. and Xue, Y., 2016. Pediatric obesity: Causes, symptoms, prevention and
treatment. Experimental and therapeutic medicine, 11(1), pp.15-20.
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