Childhood Obesity in Schools - Essay Example

? Childhood obesity in schools Obesity has grown to become a national and global health problem that is denying health scientists and medical professionals sleep and rest. The disease is comparable to national and global epidemic considering the huge amounts of money spent on controlling it. Obesity has also seen economically productive people become unproductive and almost useless to their respective societies. It is important to know that obesity is not just increase in body fat and overweight. Obesity comes with myriad of hard diseases like type II diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, cardiac arrest, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, thyroid cancer, ovary, cervix and prostate cancers and heart failure among other forms of hard diseases. School going children constitute part of population hard hit by the epidemic of obesity. Children have been vulnerable to becoming obese because of their inability to ensure wise choice of food materials to consume. Children lack the appropriate knowledge to differentiate healthy food materials from dangerous ones. In addition, children do not understand the required proportions different types of food they should eat. Drastic change in lifestyles is another reason attributable to the increased cases of obesity among school going children. Increased industrialization that has seen increase in processed foods is another reason confirming the increase in obesity. The nature and structure of the syllabus in schools have also contributed to the escalation of obesity among children. Having understood the magnitude of the problem to the societies, schools have been reluctant to enact changes in their syllabus to encompass sensitization of students about obesity. Health statistics with relation to obesity show that one in every three American child is obese. This means that there are millions of obese children in the United States of America (Lloyd, Langley-Evans & McMullen, 2012). The rates of obese school going children and adolescents in the USA have tripped over the last thirty years. The percentage of obese children with the ages of six to eleven years has increased from 7% to 18% in 1980 and 2010 respectively (Grandjour, 2012). Within the same period, adolescents between the ages of twelve to nineteen years increased from 5%-18%. Statics conducted in the USA indicate that obesity disproportionately affects American children with White school going children registering low b cases of the disease. School going children within Black and Hispanic communities have high cases of obesity. According to statics, one in every five Black children of ages 2 to 19 years suffers from obesity and related health cases. This is comparatively low with relation to one in every seven being obese among White children. There is also likelihood to diagnose Latino and Black children with type II diabetes, which closely relate to obese or overweight. In total, 32% of American children are obese with 45% of the total being children poor children within the ages of 10 and 17 years (Hearnshaw & Matyka, 2010). Studies also show that significant populations of American children have poor diets that do not meet the national set standards. A ratio of one in five American children eats the national recommended five fruits and vegetables per day. Consumption of fast foods within America has multiplied five times since 1970. An estimated one-third of children in America within the ages of 4 to 19 years consume fast foods daily. This trend has seen every child gain six additional pounds every year. Another study conducted in Los Angeles indicated that adolescents from low-income families had higher chances of becoming obese compared to those in economically stable families. The study also found that children in minority communities and from low-income families have reduced chances to access fresh produce and supermarkets. The research also unraveled that 8% of the children in Black communities lived in regions with at least one supermarket. This is far below the 31% mark of White children who live near at least one supermarket. According to same research, children between 10 and 17 years living in areas without walking paths, playgrounds, parks or recreational grounds are more likely to become obese compared to those having access to the listed amenities (Hearnshaw & Matyka, 2010). Researches also attribute widespread of obesity among children from poor families to lack of medical homes or places to obtain regular health care that is important in detecting and preventing certain forms of health care problems. Comprehensive cover as enjoyed by non-obese children in rich families ensures easy access to nutritionists, pediatricians and psychologists, whom together can provide services capable of alienating individual and environmental issues that lead to overweight. School-going obese children are facing greater risks of developing hypertension and high cholesterol values. Obesity also predispose children to other risks such as joint and bone problems, asthma, breathing difficulty, sleep apnea, type II diabetes and kidney problems. Various research conducted have indicated that obese children are likely to become overweight and obese even at adolescence (Lloyd, Langley-Evans, & McMullen, 2012). On attaining adolescence, obese children are likely to develop health risks like heart failure, stroke and osteoarthritis. The issue if obesity among American children is so serious that health experts forecast the disease could reduce the average lifespan of an average American child by two or five years. Obesity among school-going children is causing economic hiccups and suffrage in the American society. Children diagnosed with obesity require medical care that costs three times amount of money than that required by non-obese children annually. At the national level, the prescription drugs, outpatient services and emergency treatment in rooms for children with obesity cost an excess of $14 billion (Byington, Keene & Sample, 2009). Inpatient hospital care for obese children on the other hand cost an approximate of $238 million. Childhood obesity leads to additional indirect costs to the affected groups. Researches indicate that children with obesity suffer from retarded self-confidence and self-esteem. These affect the manner in which the children associate and relate with their peers, as the latter tend to stigmatize the former due to weight difference and oversize. Low self-esteem and confidence has attributed to poor academic performance of the children, occurrences that have led tended to compromise their future. Furthermore, researches confirm that obese children are likely to miss more than fortnight of school days in a year than their non-obese counterparts are (Grandjour, 2012). Moreover, obese children are also likely to repeat classes in school than their non-obese counterparts. Research Question How has obesity affected our school-going children and what measures can we take to curb the spread of the related effects? Section 2: Research Methods The research would employ techniques such as observation and case control studies to determine the exact information regarding widespread cases of obesity among school-going children. Observation Observation as a technique of epidemiologic study involves identification of study groups and making studying their behaviors without necessarily touching any of the samples. To use of observation as a study technique, the researcher needs to have adequate information and knowledge of the researched issue. For instance, the purpose of this study is to investigate how obesity affects school-going children and manner of distribution as well as identifying possible ways to address the problem. This means that the researcher conducting this kind of study by way of observation must have good knowledge of obesity and must understand dependent and independent variables to monitor. When a researcher employing observational technique in conducting epidemiologic study demonstrate good understanding of the concept, then he/she is likely to collect very accurate and reliable data. Having inadequate knowledge on obesity and factors associated to the diseases may present challenges towards successful observational study. With observation technique, the researcher would visit schools in various states of America and monitor factors and conditions claimed to be responsible for increased cases of childhood obesity in America. The researcher would visit schools considered to be reserve for high-income earners and monitor the feeding habits of the students. The researcher would particularly concentrate on the observing diet combination of the food materials consumed by the children. The researcher will also visit food kiosks and shops within such schools and observe the kind of food materials stocked. The researcher would observe the frequency with which the students consume fruits and vegetables. The researcher would also observe the period that students from rich families spend in physical activities that very essential in determine state of health as far obesity and related disease are concerned. In essence, observation activity that the researcher would conduct in the schools that are reserve for children from rich families would last for one week. During the same period of the observational study, the researcher would visit homes and streets where the students live to investigate the frequency with which the students walked on paths as part of physical exercises. The researcher would make efforts to visit five such schools distributed in Colorado, Alaska, Florida, Atlanta, Minnesota and California States. Since the researcher requires comparing prevalence of obesity between children from rich and poor families, he/she would identify and visit schools considered being reserve for children from families with low income living in the same States. In the these schools, the researcher would conduct observational studies based on the same frameworks as preferred for schools considered to be for high income earners. This is to mean that the researcher would focus on observing the dietary combination of the food materials consumed by the students in those schools. The researcher would also visit food kiosks and shops to observe the kind of food materials stocked for sale to the students. Case controls studies Case control study is a commonly used research technique in the field of medicine to study trends and spread of certain diseases. The design involves the researcher studying particular disease identifying people ailing from that specific disease and comparing them with healthy persons to determine the characteristics or signs of the given disease. In this case, the disease under investigation is obesity and related health problems. The researcher would gather the group of students believed to suffer from obesity and perform comparison with relation to the healthy students. The researcher would then have to record the observable differences to create a concrete line of difference between obese and non-obese students. There are many reasons for choosing case control study as the appropriate design for conducting this study. One of the reasons relate to fact that it is inexpensive and requires little finances. Unlike in other study designs that require hefty spending on tools, materials and assistants, the cost of case control study involves transportation to the various schools and regions of study. Another advantage of the design relates to the ease and quick pace of accomplishing research. Unlike in other designs of study that may involve experimentations and complex calculations, case control study that involves comparison of controls offers quick data and accurate data. Data collection activities Relevant techniques of collecting data for this study include and not limited to photography, note taking, voice and video recording and questionnaire. Photography would help in taking picture of the future and further analysis. Photography would also prove important in capturing images of food materials stocked in the school shops and kiosks for further studies and investigation of their potential to lead to obesity. Note taking would be important for recording of short notes during the study. The short notes would reflect the actual results observed and studied in the control samples. Voice and video recording would be essential capturing discussions and interactions of obese children and the non-obese (May, Joshi & Nair, 2012). The recordings are important for they provide materials usable for future reference when studying diseases related to the contemporary study. Section 3: The Intervention Intervention into the problem of obesity and overweight will involve advocating for establishment of laws promoting safe diets and food materials in schools. The law should define safe food materials as food components with low fat and sugar contents. Another intervention will involve mobilization of schools to provide diets to the students since this is the only way they can help parents regulate food consumed by their children. To help those who little fat but stand the risk of accumulation, there will be advocacy for schools to respect and cherish physical play among children and even provide facilities for performing the exercises. Obesity is a physiological condition, which develops because of accumulation of large mass of fats in the body of human being. Overweight is one basic sign to suspect that one is becoming obese. Obesity develops because of bad eating habits together with inadequate exercise, which encourages fats to accumulate in a human body. as obesity develops, it leads to consequential development of other health problems such as diabetes, osteoarthritis, sleep disorder, hypertension and inflammation of vital blood vessels.(Small, Malnyk, Anderson-Gifford & Hampl, 2009). The sudden change in people’s life styles across the world has led to the tremendous growth of the disease to become an epidemic that all countries across the globe are fighting to contain. Since there are no specific drugs or medicines for treating obesity, health professional and scientists have recommended adaptable measures, which when followed will help reduce the prevalence of the disease. The measures proposed for reducing obesity majorly concentrate on need to change in eating styles and habit, and engagement in regular body exercises to help decompose the excess fats. One practical way to reduce obesity at personal level is through frequent physical exercises that can involve running, climbing stairs, playing ball games among other activities involving physical movement (Small, Malnyk, Anderson-Gifford & Hampl, 2009). Doing exercises increases body temperature and draining stored body energy. This increase in temperature helps in the burning of the excess fats that are convertible into energy. This works to ensure that only the fats required for basic operation of the body remain as the excess turn into usable forms. Another important strategy capable of reducing the menace of obesity in human being is proper choice of health food materials. Cases of obesity became prevalent with the widespread introduction and consumption of junk foods made of many carbohydrates, sugar, fats and salts, but with low nutritional value. When consumed in large quantities, junk foods only work to introduce excess sugar, salt and fat into the body. The body physiology helps in conversion of sugar into fats that are storable in the body tissues. The only time body can use the excess fats is when the individual victim engages in physical exercises (Small, Malnyk, Anderson-Gifford & Hampl, 2009). It is then important for people especially those having limited time for exercise to shun or reduce consumption of junk foods alongside adopting proper and sustainable diet. It is advisable for human beings to include and appreciate brown rice, brown wheat, vegetables and varieties of fruits as part of their daily diets. Moreover, human beings should drink plenty of uncontaminated water at the range of at least eight glasses daily. Water is biologically and physiological important in facilitating detoxification of calories, cleaning of body tissues and digestion. According to Hearnshaw and Matyka (2010), fighting obesity among young children defines another style of countering the spread of obesity. Children are vague about world processes and depend on elderly to regulate and offer guidance in activities they engage. It is the prerogative of adults to conduct inspection and dictate food materials and products consumed by children. This is crucial in helping and empowering children identify and select healthy food products and proper timing as well as quantity of food eaten. Additionally, reducing obesity in children demands that adults provide advice as well as encourage children engage in physical activities and exercises to burn the accumulated fats. Hearnshaw and Matyka (2010) recommend teaching health education in schools additional strategy towards suppressing obesity. Health education should accompany more PE together with physical activities to assist learners understand techniques of suppressing spread of the disease in USA (Childs, 2011). In addition, Mistry et al (2012) advocate that health education should accompany provision of better nutrition service in the learning institutions. Furthermore, Hearnshaw and Matyka (2010) propose that schools should encourage and ensure healthy environments that have plenty of fruits and without junk foods and sugary drinks. Section 4: The Impact The reason for initiating this research relates to the need to determine the exact effects of obesity on the school-going children and find frameworks to solve the problem. Obesity is serious health problem that is ruining normal livelihood of many people. Being helpless members of the societies, children bear the most effects considering that they lack powers to determine and control the kind of food they consume. The research expects to find out that obesity has led the victims to develop complex health problems. This expectation relates to the scientific and biological facts that relate obesity to accumulation of excess and unwanted fats in the bodies of the affected. It is biologically and scientifically proven that excess fats in the body is toxic considering that fats paralyzes normal body functions. The body has particular mechanisms that enables it convert fats that are not in use into starch. However, there is high likelihood of the system to fail especially when fat accumulation is excess (Small, Malnyk, Anderson-Gifford & Hampl, 2009). The excess fats usually tend to block and narrow essential blood vessels leading to their gradual inflammation. The blockage allows small and abnormal channel for the flow of blood, which compels the heart to struggle to exert abnormal pressure to force the blood flow to the required parts of the body. This effect results to condition described as hypertension, which later leads to low blood pressure related to exhaustion of the heart muscles due to huge work done when struggling to force blood through the narrowed vessels. Accumulation of excess fats and failure of the body to covert the elements into other useful forms expose the body to the risk of developing Type II diabetes. Obese students are also vulnerable to the risk of social stigma especially from the fellow students with normal body size. Such treatments are likely to lead the victims into depression and psychological torture that can lead to their withdrawal from the society. Moreover, obesity has the effect of leading to heat failure of the individual victims as well as poor mental coordination associated with inadequate supply of blood to the brain and central nervous systems. Solving the problem of obesity among school-going children is a challenging task and requires openness and direct confrontation of the causing factors. Dealing with the problem would require that first attention directed to the causative factors, which would have big impacts to the society. For instance, there is need to close shops and kiosks dealing in fast food material within the environments of schools. Doing this lead to social problems related to seeming suppression of economic ability of the traders. Declaring sales of the fast food materials as unhealthy and risky to human body has the potential of resulting to social labeling and accusation of the traders as killers. Section 5: Evaluation Evaluation of the anticipated results and health outcomes will be important before gathering of the actual results. The evaluation plan for the purpose will involve reading of books and materials that discuss obesity. These materials will help in verification of the anticipated results and performing corrections on wrong speculations. The materials will also help in clarification of unclear points on anticipated outcomes. In addition, the secondary materials will be important in providing a tool for comparison to help in quick analysis of outcomes. The evaluation plan will also involve experimentations on the relationship between excess fats, body mechanism and conversion to useful starch. References Byington, R., Keene, S., & Samples, D. (2009). An Epidemiological Overview Of Pediatric Obesity: A Global Perspective Of A Growing Problem. Internet Journal Of World Health & Societal Politics, 6(2), 4. Childs, N. (2011). In-Store Marketing To Children: Us Food Retailer Practices Abating Childhood Obesity/Marketing Infantil Nas Lojas: Praticas Dos Retalhistas Norte-Americanos Do Setor Alimentar Para Combater A Obesidade Infantil. Revista Portuguesa De Marketing, 14(27), 78-87. Gandjour, A. (2012). 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