Obesity Among Adolescents - Term Paper Example

Obesity among teenagers in U.S. – an Internet community based survey analysis                                                                                                                  Introduction Obesity among adolescents has become an alarming issue in the present world, particularly in the westernized society. The percentage of overweight children is growing at an alarming rate all over the world. In U.S. itself the rate of growth of obese children seems to be very scaring. Researches show that between 16 and 33 percent of children and adolescents are obese (American Academy of Children and Adolescents Psychiatry, 2008). Today kids are less interested in spending time in exercising; they want to spend most of their time in front of the TV, computer, or video-game. Along with it the busy families of today’s world have little free time to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals. Eating out on a daily basis is becoming a part of everyday life of adults as well as adolescent members, particularly in westernized culture. Obesity poses a great problem to society. Unhealthy weight gain mainly due to unhealthy diet and lack of exercise is responsible for a large number of deaths (e.g. over 300,000 in U.S.) each year.  It is quite likely that today’s overweight children would become overweight adults unless a healthier pattern of eating and exercise is adopted and maintained thoroughly. Obese children also face a huge risk for significant health hazards. Apart from different health problems, obese adolescents are also exposed to several psychological problems too. The present research aims at conducting a popular media based survey analysis to find out the major factors which are responsible for excessive weight gain among U.S. teenagers along with finding out the extent by which these factors affect teenage obesity in U.S. For the present paper one of the most popular media in today’s world, the internet will be used for the purpose of the survey. Before moving onto detail analysis of the media based survey method and analysis the survey report, it is essential to have an in-depth look into some important aspects related to overweight or obesity, such as, definition of obesity, its causes etc. These ideas will be helpful during conducting the survey. Along with reviewing existing literature on obesity related aspects, it is also essential to examine the advantages and disadvantages of internet media based research method.                                                  Review of existing literature  Obesity and its Causes:  Having a few extra pounds in one’s body does not imply obesity. Usually, in medical terms a child is considered obese when his weight is at least 10 percent more compared to the recommended weight for his height and frame of the body.  Usually, obesity starts during the childhood within the range of 5 and 6 years and in the period of adolescence.  Several studies predicts that a obese child aged between the ages of 10 and 13 has a huge chance, around 80 percent, of becoming an obese adult in future.  (American Academy of Children and Adolescents Psychiatry, 2008) A number of factors can cause obesity. These factors are very complex and can be genetic, biological, behavioral or cultural.  In most occasions, however, obesity occurs when a person eats more calories than what the body can burn up.  Obesity can also be genetic. Researches show that if one parent is obese, there exists a 50 percent probability that the children will also be obese.  However, when both parents are obese, the probability that the child will be obese increases to 80 percent. According to some estimate, within 5 and 25 percent of the risk for obesity is caused by heredity.  Therefore, in essence obesity in childhood and adolescence can mainly be related to unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise, family history of obesity, and medical illnesses. Apart from these, some other factors like stressful life events or changes, such as separations, divorce, deaths, abuse; family and peer problems; low level confidence, depression or other emotional problems also contribute to the problem of childhood obesity. (American Academy of Children and Adolescents Psychiatry, 2008) Currently, in all over the world, particularly in western societies, however, the problem of childhood obesity can be attributed mostly to the very fast life style of people which impacts on the dietary patterns of parents as well as children. Given their busy schedule they do not get much time to cook healthy stuff for themselves as well as for their children, and therefore eat outside and are increasingly being attracted to quick junk food, especially the children. Diet of people has changed enormously in recent times. Over-nutrition has replaced under-nutrition. Over the past 30 years, daily consumption of total calories has increased by manifolds. Soft drink consumption has gone up, adding more calories and lesser nutrients to children’s diets. This changing dietary pattern plays the most crucial role in causing obesity along with lack of physical activity. (Gazzaniga and Burns, 1993)  Advantages and disadvantages of online media based primary survey:  In last one decade, use of internet has been increased significantly. With increase in communicative activities through internet, there has been significant increase in the use of internet network for conducting primary surveys for various kinds of researches. However, the technique employed in online surveys is still at very you age and therefore along with having some advantages, it also suffers from some severe shortcomings. The advantages of internet based surveys are as follows: With continuous decline in costs of computer and increasing popularity of the internet, more and more people are using internet network for communication as well as for gathering various sorts of information. Today, not only in the offices, but also in schools, colleges, and even in homes, there are increasing access to computer and internet. Today even children have become computer and internet savvy. (Wright, 2005) Internet is becoming a very rich area for conducting primary surveys in a wide range of fields. Through various community sites, thousands of people are communicating with each other, discussing on various issues, participating in debates almost all conceivable topics. Through internet it becomes very easy to reach to the targeted population group for any particular research as in most of the community sites, there exist almost all possible conceivable groups. Not only that, primary survey based on internet is also very time consuming as internet network allow a researcher to reach his or her targeted population, i.e. people with some particular feature according to the research motive in a very short span of time. Internet surveys also save money. Traditional paper surveys are more costly compared to online survey. (Wright, 2005) In spite of having lots of advantages as mentioned above, online surveys have some serious shortcomings. In case of sampling, a researcher may encounter serious problems as he or she poses little amount of knowledge about the true characteristics of the people in online communities like Orkut, Facebook etc.he or she has selected for the survey. Hence the data provided by the people selected in the sample may not be reliable always. Along with this, very often, it also becomes difficult to communicate with certain groups of people as the online community they belong to does not provide e-mail addresses of their members. Apart from these, response rate to the questionnaire sent to the people selected for the sample may not be according to the expectation. On many occasions, the response rates in online surveys become less than the response rates in traditional surveys. (Wright, 2005)                                                 Research aims and Methodology         The present research aims at conducting a primary survey on obese teenagers using the high technology media of internet to find out major causes of obesity in U.S. teenagers, and relative importance of each factor. For achieving the aims mentioned above the present research will adopt the method of primary survey to gather information on relevant aspects through internet. One of the best ways of conducting primary survey regarding any particular issue through internet is to use various community sites like Orkut, Facebook etc. These sites are extremely helpful in initiating direct communication with the targeted group of the survey through their huge network. Although there exists wide debate on the reliability of the data obtained through these sites, but there is no doubt that they are quite helpful in providing some important ideas on any issue. (Arksey & Peter, 1999)       For the current research Orkut will be used for the selection of sample. Orkut has several communities devoted solely for fat people, like “Fat People Unite”, “Who is more fat you or me?”, “Big fat nothing”, “All the fat children” etc. the members of these communities are those who are glad to declare themselves fat. The sample for the present research will be selected from the members of these communities.       The current research is based on primary survey and an appropriate way of gathering primary data is to conduct interviews with selected candidates with the help of properly structured questionnaire. For the present study, the questionnaire will include some open ended and some close ended questions. Questions must be framed in detail and have to be straight to the point so that the level of confusion can be minimized in the best possible manner. One of the major advantages of this interviewing technique is that through this technique the questions set by the researchers can be discussed with the interviewees with more detail. Interviews are generally conducted through telephones, or through emails or directly by face-to face. But for the present case it would be quite difficult to arrange for face to face interviews as members are spread all over the country. Telephonic interviews can also not be possible as most of the members do not give their personal numbers on a public site. Hence, email interviews will be ideal for the present study. (Arksey & Peter, 1999; Fowler and  Floyd, 2002)       After deciding on interview process, it’s necessary to prepare questionnaire. In the present case two separate questionnaires will be prepared. The first one is required for finding out obese people, while the second one will ask questions set in accordance with the research objectives.       Since, focus group of the current research is mainly adolescents and teenagers of U.S., so as the first step of the survey from the selected communities of Orkut those members will be short listed who belong to the age group of 12-19 and who are citizen of U.S. Now as it has earlier been stated that having extra pound does not imply obesity, hence, the next step would be to single out obese teenagers from the members shortlists initially. The initially short-listed members will be sent via emails (email ids are generally available from community profiles) a questionnaire containing some basic questions about their age, sex, height and weight. After obtaining this information, BMI of these members will be calculated and then those members will be short listed for the final interviews who will have their weight is at least 10 percent more compared to the recommended weight for their height and frame of the body.       Now these short listed people will be asked the following questions: How many burgers (standard size) you consume a week? a. less than 2         b. 2-5        c. 5-8   d. 8-12       e. more than 12 How many Pizzas (standard size) you consume a week? a. less than 2         b. 2-5        c. 5-8   d. 8-12       e. more than 12 How many bottles (500 ml.) of cold drinks you consume a week? a. less than 2         b. 2-5        c. 5-8   d. 8-12       e. more than 12 How many bars (250 gm) of chocolate you consume a week? a. less than 2 bars  b. 2-6 bars c. 6-10 bars   d. 10-14 bars  e. more than 14 How many times you go to restaurants for your break fast, lunch or dinner? a. less than 2         b. 2-4        c. 4-8   d. 8-14       e. more than 14 How many times you take heavy meal a day? a. 2 times b. 3 times c. 4 times d. More than 4 times. Do you participate in any kind of physical exercises? a. no. b. yes, I regularly go for a walk early in the morning c. yes, I regularly run on treadmill. d. Yes, I go to gym regularly and do various sorts of physical exercises. e. Not regularly. Do you have any one in you family who is over weight or obese?                                                                        Results For the first round of interviews 150 members were selected. Among these 150 members, 120 members gave their responses to the questionnaire sent to them asking about their age, sex, height and weight. Among these 120 people, 70 people have been found to be obese according to the calculated BMI index on the basis of information given by them. These 70 members were short listed for the final round of interviews. Responses from 60 people have been obtained. Table 1 presents the results on food intake.   Burger Consumption Pizza consumption Cold drink consumption Chocolate consumption Restaurant visits number of taking heavy meal level responses level responses level responses level responses times responses times responses < 2 5 < 2 4 < 2 _ < 2 1 < 2 3 2 7 2 to 5 5 2 to 5 7 2 to 5 2 2 to 6 4 2 to 4 6 3 15 5 to 8 10 5 to 8 15 5 to 8 7 6 to 10 12 4 to 8 10 4 30 8 to 12 30 8 to 12 25 8 to 12 35 10 to 14 30 8 to 14 35 more than 4 8 more than 12 10 more than 12 9 more than 12 16 more than 14 13 more than 14 6       In the table above, it is found that most of the obese have a tendency to consume high calorie foods like burgers, pizzas, chocolates, cold drinks etc in high amounts, to eat out in restaurants regularly and to take heavy meals frequently in a day. As far as physical activities are concerned, among the selected obese, 30 have reported that they go for morning walk,  15 go to gym for some exercises, while the remaining have reported their unwillingness in doing any regular exercise. As far as presence of any other obese members in family has concerned, 15 reported that either their father, or mother or both parents are obese. Interesting thing is that intake of high calorie food is quite in these 15 people low compared to others. These 15 people also do regular exercises.                                                                Interpretation For the selected sample, on the basis of the information gathered through internet survey, it can therefore be said that causes of obesity for the selected obese can be high intake of high calorie foods, eating out almost regularly, less physical exercises and sometimes genetic too. However, as far as the extent of effectiveness on each of these factors on obesity is concerned, it can be said that it is mainly high intake of high calorie food on a regular basis which causes obesity. Even if some participate in some physical exercises regularly, uncontrolled eating of high calorie foods can not stop him or her from gaining weight. If less or no exercises are combined with this kind of food habit, situation becomes much worse. But in a few cases, obesity can also be genetic where controlled eating habit and regular exercise can not come to great help in maintaining healthy weight.                                                                       Conclusion The present research is completely based on a primary survey which has been conducted through one of the most popular media in today’s world, the internet. The strength of this research is that it is not based on any secondary data. All the relevant informations have been gathered through direct interaction with the targeted group. But it also has some shortcomings as it is solely based on self-reporting of the respondents. No face-to face interaction has taken place between the researcher and the respondents. Hence, there may arise huge question regarding the reliability of the data. Apart from this, number of respondents is also quite low. So there may arise problem in the generalization of the results. However, the present research is capable of providing deep insights in the life style of obese, their dietary nature etc.   Reference: 1. American Academy of Children and Adolescents Psychiatry. 2008. Obesity In Children And Teens. available at http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/obesity_in_children_and_teens(accessed on 23rd May, 2009) 2. Arksey, H. & Knight, P. 1999. Interviewing for Social Scientists. London :Sage Publications. 3. Wright, K. B. 2005. Researching Internet-based populations: Advantages and disadvantages of online survey research, online questionnaire authoring software packages, and web survey services. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, available at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/wright.html (accessed on 23rd May, 2009) 4. Fowler Jr., and Floyd J. 2002. Survey Research Methods. California: Sage Publications 5. Gazzaniga J, and Burns T. 1993. Relationship between diet composition and body fatness, with adjustment for resting energy expenditure and physical activity, in preadolescent children. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . 58:21-28 Read More