Rising Incidences of Childhood Obesity - Essay Example

"Rising Incidences of Childhood Obesity" is an excellent example of a paper on social and family issues. Obesity can be termed as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation in the adipose tissue to the extent of impairing health. Obese individuals differ not only in the amount of excess fat stored but also in the regional distribution of fat within the body. Fat distribution induced by weight gain affects the risks which are associated with obesity and the types of resultant diseases. Indeed, fat, especially abdominal fat, is a great disease risk factor. It is therefore essential to be at a position that one is able to take good care of his general health especially during childhood.  It is widely accepted that obesity has negative impacts on someone’s life especially children since it could negatively affect a child’s academic performance and social relation. There have been several studies that demonstrate that the most effective way of dealing with this is healthy feeding and exercise. There has been researching which has been conducted, demonstrating that adhering to eating mainly vegetable-based diets has a favorable impact on general health. This is the best way of avoiding obesity (Gumbner, 2001).

            Parental influence is the focal point of the rising incidences of childhood obesity.

Obesity is one of the diseases affecting most people worldwide being the 5th leading risk for worldwide deaths. Physiological and biological consensus on the main cause of obesity is an energy imbalance between the calories that we take in and those that are expended during our day to day activities. The etiology of obesity especially in children is multifactorial in nature with factors like genetics, dietary patterns and physical activity being the main contributors. Since obesity starts from childhood, it has been cited that parents are to blame because they possess the power to control their decisions by either agreeing or disagreeing with unhealthy foods and present healthier alternatives. The disparities regarding social lifestyle and eating habits are to blame for the rising incidences of obesity (Gumbner, 2001).

Null hypothesis

            This paper will briefly incorporate the concept of the null hypothesis. This is the scientific practice involving the formulation and finding hypotheses and statements such as research findings of observed data which has been used since it can be proven false. Research findings can only support or reject a null hypothesis.

Research showings

The parental disconnect between the actual or perceived weight of their children and the prevailing modern lifestyle has a lot to do with obesity. Research has indicated that people seem not to be ignorant regarding the risk factors that pertain to obesity, thus misperceive their weight often. Obesity has its roots in childhood. Study investigations have shown that 48% of adolescents whose parents drank soda daily and ate fast food a minimum of once a day have been affected at one time. Cultural influences have also been noted to affect a parent’s perception of their overweight children. Results showed that 50% of black women were more satisfied with large sized children and babies as opposed to 33% of white women. The most commonly used tool in the estimation of overweight and levels of obesity in children and adults is BMI. The ranges of overweight and obesity are estimated using weight and height in computing a person’s BMI when it comes to adults. The fat content in the body correlates with BMI. Since children have different growth rates at different times, the determination of a child’s overweight situation is hard (Gumbner, 2001).

Summary

            All research studies indicate that children have a propensity to eat what they see their parents eat, which suggests that there is a parental role to the rising obesity crisis among toddlers, infants, and teenagers. Most of the dietary factors that are commonly employed by parents during infancy stages or children’s developmental stages have also been noted to set the arena for future obesity. The research, however, has not concluded whether this is mostly as a result of the contribution of genes or as a result of parental eating behaviors and lifestyles (Gumbner, 2001).