A Detailed Analysis of Obesity's Impact on Public Health

This report delves into the multifaceted impact of obesity on public health, defining obesity according to WHO standards as the excessive accumulation of fat leading to increased health risks. It highlights the alarming prevalence rates, noting that millions of adults and children worldwide are classified as obese, with women being disproportionately affected. The report details various comorbidities associated with obesity, including cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mental health issues. Risk factors such as unhealthy diets, lack of exercise, genetics, and environmental factors are discussed, alongside prevention measures like healthy diets, exercise, and government-led programs. The report also emphasizes the negative impact of obesity on mortality rates, healthcare expenditures, and mental health, concluding that obesity poses a significant global public health challenge. The report references various sources to support its findings.

Impact of obesity in public health
obesity
According to WHO (2019), obesity are defined as excessive
accumulation of fat which increases the risk of health of an
individual.
Obesity is the major risk factor for several physical and mental health
complications.
Person having Body Mass Index more than 25 is considered as
overweight whereas individual having Body mass index more than 30
is recognized as obese.
It has increased dramatically in low and some middle income
countries, especially in urban areas.
According to WHO (2019), public health is defined as the method of
preventing illness, prolonging lifespan, and promoting health life style
by the effect of healthcare organization.
Prevalence rate
In 2015, about 603.7 million of adults and around 107.7 million of
children from around 194 countries are recognized as obese.
Women are more likely to suffer from obesity as compared to men.
Females ages between 60-64 and males ages between 50-54 have highest
body mass index.
According to CDC (2019), prevalence rate of obese people in United States
is 32.2% for males, 35.5% for females and is increasing day by day.
Around 1%incrase in the prevalence rate of obesity in densely populated
countries such as china can gives rise to 20 million additional cases of
obesity globally.
In United States there are number of obese than that of the overweighed
individual.(CDC 2019)
Risk factor
The major risk factor associated with the increase of obesity in individual are
Unhealthy diet- diet with high amount of cholesterol and other unhygienic food
which increases the risk of obesity
Lack of physical exercise- lack of physical and aerobic exercise leads to obesity.
Genetic issue- many individual have a genetic history of obesity
Age and sex- people of age 50 or more are likely to get effected by obesity. In
addition, obesity is more prevalent in case of women.
Social environments- environmental factors such as pollution, unhygienic life
style are also responsible for obesity.
Side effects- there are various medicines which gives rise to obesity in adults as
side effects. For example- insulin which is used for diabetes
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Comorbidities related to
obesity
ADHS 2019. Arizona’s State of Obesity 2018. [online] AZ Dept. of Health Services
Director's Blog. Available at: https://directorsblog.health.azdhs.gov/arizonas-state-of-
obesity-2018/ [Accessed 30 Mar. 2019].
CDC 2019. The Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity | Healthy Weight | CDC.
[online] Cdc.gov. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/effects/index.html
[Accessed 30 Mar. 2019].
Gregg, E.W. and Shaw, J.E., 2017. Global health effects of overweight and obesity.
Hales, C.M., Carroll, M.D., Fryar, C.D. and Ogden, C.L., 2017. Prevalence of obesity
among adults and youth: United States, 2015–2016.
Wadden, T.A. and Bray, G.A. eds., 2018. Handbook of obesity treatment. Guilford
Publications.
WHO 2019. WHO | Obesity. [online] Who.int. Available at:
https://www.who.int/topics/obesity/en/ [Accessed 30 Mar. 2019].
Williams, E.P., Mesidor, M., Winters, K., Dubbert, P.M. and Wyatt, S.B., 2015.
Overweight and obesity: prevalence, consequences, and causes of a growing public
health problem. Current obesity reports, 4(3), pp.363-370.
ConclusionFrom the above information it is concluded that, obesity poses a
negative impact on the public health.
• Obesity is the most prevalent disorder in united states as well as
around the world
• Obesity is responsible for increasing the mortality rate of the
population
• Obesity increases the prevalence rate of other chronic disease
globally.
• Obesity is also responsible for increasing mental illness cases around
the world.
References
The increased rate of obesity lead to negative impact on the
worldwide incidence of disease such as:
• Cancer (ovarian, kidney, breast, colorectal, pancreatic and
prostrate).
• Type 2 diabetes
• Hypertension
• Coronary artery disease
• Congestive heart failure
• Chronic back pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Gall balder disease (Gregg and Shaw 2017)
Obesity leads to severe metabolic effects on cholesterol, blood
pressure, insulin resistance and triglycerides.
Disability caused by obesity or overweight related cardiovascular
illness is increased in industrialized countries than that of the non-
industrialized countries (Gregg and Shaw 2017).
LOGO
Impact on mental health
It poses a negative impact on the mental health of the individual.
• Mood disorder
• Eating problems
• Reduced self esteem
• Impersonal communication issue
• Impaired body image
Many antipsychotic drugs is also responsible for obesity among a
large population (CDC 2019).
According to Arizona Department of health (2019), people
suffering from mental illness die around 25-30 years earlier than
those individual without mental illness due to obesity.
LOGO
Around 2.8 million individual die each year due to obesity.
Around 35.8 million population (2.3%) of total global population, died
due to obesity and overweight.
Obesity poses more effect on the morbidly rate the on the mortality
rate.
In United States, around 400,000 cases of death are reported every
year.
Expenditure of around $117 billion is done by healthcare organization
every year for obesity related issues in United States. (Williams 2015)
Mortality rate
Prevention measures
To reduce the prevalence rate of obesity healthy diet and exercise should be
incorporated into the daily regime (Wadden, and Bray 2018).
There are many programs also initiated by the government of United States for
weight loss such as
State Physical Activity and Nutrition Program- this is local program funded
statewide which uses evidence based measures to reduce the effect of obesity
and also assists in increasing the physical and nutritional activity.
Child hood obesity research demonstration project- This program helps in
providing counseling service and obesity screening for low income families and
their children.
High obesity program- This program works in locally and globally only on
those countries having more than 40% of population affected by obesity (Hales,
et al 2017).
Figure: prevalence rate of obesity
Source: CDC 2019
Figure: percent of population suffering from
obesity
Source: WHO 2019