Childhood Obesity as a Health Problem All over the World - Essay Example

? Childhood Obesity Obesity is a health problem all over the world. This problem is divided into three categories; individual, family and community. For individual, it may arise due to bad eating habits, lack of enough exercises and factors like spending most time playing video games and watching television. The family category includes factors that are genetic and family rituals that encourage obesity among the members. Some of these rituals include lack of family exercises, food prevalence and other family related routines. The obesity in the community level may arise due to the environment and factors of communal activities that may be encouraging most people to acquire this disorder. Thomson Medical carried out a research on childhood obesity focused with the research questions such as; what are the costs of obesity, what are the appropriate treatment patterns, what are the disparities in care and prevalent medical conditions. This study considered the following ethical issues when collecting data; consent, privacy and confidentiality. The facilitator had to obtain consent from parents and guardians by promising them that the names of the children affected was not to be revealed. Thus, the question of privacy and confidentiality was addressed from the parental consent. Obesity is considered as an epidemic in America. A research quoted in the literature review indicates that 16% of U.S children could be obese (Christofell, 2012). Further the study shows that the health problem is more prevalent to children covered by public health insurance for instance Medicaid as compared to those covered by private insurances. According to the findings, children covered by public health insurance are about six times like to be treated with obesity as compared to those covered by private insurance. A comparison of the costs incurred by public and private insurances on children diagnosed with obesity indicated that; public health care costs approximately $6,700 while private insurance costs about $3,700. These National totals are estimated with data from Medical Expenditure Panel Survey conducted by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. According to the research, obesity has an economic implication, as it is estimated that the national cost of childhood obesity is estimated to be approximately $11 billion for children with private insurance and $3 billion for those in Medicaid. In addition children covered by Medicaid are six times more likely to be diagnosed with obesity than those covered by private insurance. Obesity was also found to be a major cause of absents in schools where it was found that obese children are absent for more days than the average weight children. Among the studied population, obese children missed school for 12.2 days on average per year while those of average weight missed for an average of 10 days (Christofell, 2012). Such kind of absenteeism disrupts children learning, causes parents to miss work has accost effect to the school systems. Children diagnosed with obesity are 2 to 3 more likely to be hospitalized and children who receive public insurance are less likely to visit the doctor but they are more likely visit the hospital more often as compared to children with private insurance (Wilkins, 2011). Children treated for obesity is more likely to get a mental health disorders or joint and bone disorders than non-obese children. Treatment for these conditions can contribute to the higher medical costs than average weight children. Other conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease are likely to emerge as these children age, causing medical costs associated with obesity to continue rising. The methodology used involved an analysis examination of the subset of children treated for obesity as recorded in the national database for children with private health insurance and database of children with public insurance. The research focused on children aged 17 years and under who had received diagnosis of obesity as small fraction of the obese children because most obese children do not receive formal diagnosis on medical claims. Preventing obesity during childhood is important to ensure that it is not carried into adulthood. If such an epidemic is not prevented on time there is a chance of raising a sick generation that as a high chance of dying at young age. The main cause of obesity is energy imbalance and consumption of many calories with low consumption rate. The research shows that overweight children aged between 7-12 years consume between 700 to 100 calories per day more than what is required for growth, physical exercise and healthy weight teen (Wilkins, 2011). This eating habit over 10 years is likely to cause 57 unnecessary pounds. According to the research, American children and adolescents aged between 8 to 18 years spend more than six hours per day playing videos and watching television and take less than on physical exercises as compared to children in the 1960s. This affects they body as they are not properly exercised and the calories consumed are not released, but stored as fat, thus the obese disorders. The conclusion of the study matches the findings. The study concludes that obese children are most likely to suffer from bone breakage as opposed to children who are not suffering from obesity. It also concluded that treatment for this condition has higher costs than short-term medical practices that are usually proposed. Lastly, the study concludes that the child suffering from obese conditions, are most likely to suffer from other diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and heat disorders. The study’s findings were that children diagnosed with obesity are 3-4 times likely to be hospitalized as opposed to those without obesity. The findings indicated that most private insurers are reluctant to insure obese children s they fear meeting the cost of secondary diseases and cost of physical therapy that may be recommended by the physician. The findings indicated that 65% of the children diagnosed to have obesity at a young age, end up suffering from heart disorders and diabetes in their mid teen age or early twenty. The findings relate the obesity to lack of enough exercise and effects of fats in the arteries and veins. The study found out that the family and individual factors are most contributors to a child being obese. The children with obesity are likely to suffer from breakages as they body does is not well exercised and the weight affects the bone capacity to support it. The conclusion answers the research questions that were aimed out finding out the cost of obesity, appropriate treatment pattern, disparities in care and prevalent medical conditions. The study found out that the cost of treatment in the privately insured children is high as opposed to public insurance. It also found out that the US government spends an average cost of $11 billion to treat the obese children (NCCOR, 2012). The treatment patterns include the physical therapy and medication. The study found out that a change in family diet, reduction of television and video playing time helps one to recover form obese conditions. These conclusions are appropriate as they tackle issues that if carefully considered, the obese problem will be completely eliminated from the family and society. This conclusion, like change of diet, will help even the child who is suffering due to the family genes. As they will integrate healthy eating with exercises thus, have a good check on the child development. The findings have given me enough information to come up with the right decision that; obesity in the children is controllable and that the responsibility lies with the parents and the society. The parents should encourage their children to carry physical exercises as opposed to staying idle. The information gas enabled me to link obesity to other lifestyle diseases like diabetes and heart related diseases. This type of information is effective as it enables one to stop pre-judging others and strive to be part of the solution to this epidemic. References Christofell, K. (2012). Childhood Obesity Research. CLOCC pub. NCCOR. (2012). Childhood Obesity in the US. NCCOR press. Wilkins, D. (2011). Childhood Obesity:Costs, Treatment Patterns, Disparities in Care,. Thomason Medstat press. Read More