Adult obesity: A on the contributory factors and consequences - Literature review Example

?Adult obesity: A literature review on the contributory factors and consequences Introduction Obesity is one of the most important issues of the society in the present age (Ford and Mokdad, 2008, p. 51). Obesity has increased the number of challenges for the governments in the contemporary age as it is not only a health issue, but is also an important economic issue, thus causing the governments, insurance companies and also the affected people to bear the costs (Bhattacharya and Bundorf, 2005). Obesity is the name of a condition that causes an individual to have abnormally unhealthy and high content of body fat. A positive balance of energy in which the intake of energy is more than its expenditure, sustained over a long period of time causes obesity (World Health Organization, 2000). Obesity is conventionally measured with a scale called body mass index (BMI), which is square of the ratio of weight in kilograms and height in meters of an individual (National Cancer Institute, 2012, p. 1). Obesity has seriously affected the health of people all across the world in general and in the US in particular (Allender et al., 2006). “An epidemic of overweight and obesity in the United States has had profound effects on the health of the general population, with consequent development of metabolic syndrome and related morbidity and mortality” (Megna et al., 2011, p. 131). The population of obese people in the US has more than doubled in the years from 1980 to 2004, with the percentage of obese people in the US in 1980 being 15 per cent and that in 2004 being 32 per cent (Yaniv, Rosin, and Tobol, n.d., p. 1). The technological advancement has played an important role in increasing people’s tendency to become obese. The contemporary lifestyle encourages people to spend more time in the virtual world and consume junk food, thus causing obesity in them. There are numerous physical and psychological consequences of obesity on adults. The overall impact of obesity on an adult’s life is negative. Obesity in adults increases their tendency to acquire different kinds of diseases including hypertension, heart attack, and chronic myeloid leukemia (Strom et al., 2009). Obese adults are lazy, subjected to inferiority complex, and depressed. In some cases, obesity leads an adult to social exclusion. Frustration and depression are some of the most common consequences of obesity in adults. In the contemporary age, where beauty is defined in terms of smartness, obese adults feel themselves out of proportion, and measuring very low on the scale of obesity. Media has played a very important role in inculcating this perception in the people’s minds that to be slim is to be beautiful. Other factors that have contributed to an increase in the looks-consciousness include wealth and opulence. Walk is one of the most useful exercises to shed off weight. It enhances the metabolism of the body. The energy consumed in extensive walk is drawn from the fat stored in the body. This causes the fat to burn and the muscles to develop, thus causing a two-way effect to reduce weight. This paper discusses the potential causes and consequences of obesity among adults. Causes Physical inactivity and lack of exercise are some of the factors that have been frequently identified by a lot of researchers as the potential causes of obesity in adults. Silventoinen et al. (2009) studied the modifying impact of protein intake and physical activity on the BMI. Results of their research suggested a reduction in the genetic variation of weight in physically active adults, which indicates that the action of genes which cause an individual’s predisposition to obesity can be modified by physical activity. Okura et al. (2005) conducted a quantitative research to identify the impact of aerobic exercise and the phenotype of obesity over the reduction of abdominal fat as a result of weight loss. It was found that the efficacy of the reduction of intra-abdominal fat (IF) of supplementing a diet-alone weight reducing program with aerobic exercise training is more for adults that have IF obesity as compared to a diet alone (DA) program. The results of this research emphasized upon the importance of exercise along with dieting in order to control obesity in adults. Vartanian and Shaprow (2008) conducted a research to explore the interrelationship of the weight stigma, the motivation for exercise and the behavior of exercise displayed by 100 female undergraduates. Vartanian and Shaprow (2008) found positive correlation between the research participants’ experiences of stigma and BMI and their dissatisfaction with body. This means that as the participants’ stigma experiences increased, so did their BMI as well as their dissatisfaction with the body. One of the most important findings of the research conducted by Vartanian and Shaprow (2008) is that increased frequency of the stigma experiences by the female undergraduates inculcated increased desire in them to avoid exercise when the relationship between the two variables was controlled for the body dissatisfaction and BMI. This suggests a cause-effect relationship between obesity and lack of physical activity, in which lack of physical activity is both a cause and effect of obesity. Alternately, obesity is both a cause and effect of physical inactivity in female undergraduates (Vartanian and Shaprow, 2008). The avoidance of exercise was in turn found to be related to moderate and less strenuous exercise. Comparison of the conclusions drawn by Silventoinen et al. (2009) and Okura et al. (2005) suggests that both researches have identified the importance of exercise and its positive effect in terms of reduction of weight in the obese adults. From their conclusions, it can also be inferred that lack of physical activity and particularly lack of exercises increases an adult’s susceptibility to have more intra-abdominal fat and BMI. Okura et al. (2005) also emphasized upon the importance of dieting to reduce an adult’s susceptibility to becoming obese. While Vartanian and Shaprow (2008) also considered physical activity an effective way to control obesity, they went a step further to suggest that the weight stigma experienced by adults results in a lack of motivation to take exercise, thus causing the physical activity levels to decrease in them. However, the results of the research conducted by Okura et al. (2005) and Vartanian and Shaprow (2008) cannot be generalized for men as the research participants in both the researches were women. There needs to be done research upon obese men to determine the relationship between weight stigma and motivation for physical activity. Research found reluctance in the obese patients to go for mandatory dieting. Although obese people generally tend to stick to intense diet schedules, and yet do not attain the desired results. One cause of this is binge eating. This attitude is probably an outcome of loss of hope of weight-loss. Non-biologic factors causing obesity in adults include but are not limited to sex and age (Lane et al., 2006) and socioeconomic status. Ethnicity also has a role to play in the obesity of an individual. Ethnicity is also one of the commonly identified causal factors of obesity. A lot of researches have found maximal prevalence of obesity among the African Americans in the US than people belonging to any other race or ethnicity. According to Reinberg (2009), Africans Americans in the US are more obese than the White Americans by 51 per cent. Sanchez-Johnsen et al. (2004) conducted a quantitative research to determine the ethnic differences pertaining to obesity between the Black women and the Latin-American women. As a result of their research, Sanchez-Johnson et al. (2004) found the black women weighing more than the Latin-American women. Paradoxically, the black women were found to be more satisfied with their body image than the Latin-American women. Similar results were drawn by the quantitative research of Burke et al. (1992) who attempted to determine the correlates between the obesity of young White and Black women. The young Black women were found to have consistently higher skinfold thicknesses and body mass index than the young White women. The causal factors of higher obesity rates in the young Black women than the young White women included sedentary lifestyle, earlier menarche and lesser age at the birth of first child (Burke et al., 1992). From this, it can be estimated that the difference of obesity rate across ethnicities can be partially attributed to the difference of lifestyle across ethnicities. The Black women are generally less active physically as compared to the White women (Jakicic, Lang, and Wing, 2001). The common factor between Sanchez-Johnsen et al. (2004) and Burke et al. (1992) is that both the researches were focused upon the comparison of tendency of women to become obese, though the two researches differ in that Sanchez-Johnsen et al. (2004) compared the obesity of the Black women to the Latin-American women while Burke et al. (1992) compared the obesity trends between the young White and Black American women. However, both the researches have commonly found the Black women to be more obese than the women belonging to the other races. More research needs to be done to explain the effect of ethnicity on an individual’s tendency to become obese by comparing the obesity trends between Blacks and more races. Consequences: Obesity has a lot of physical and psycho-social effects on the life of an adult. Research suggests that obesity has many negative implications particularly upon the health of an adult. Jia and Lubetkin (2005) conducted a quantitative research on respondents more than 18 years of age to determine the effect of obesity on the health-related quality of life (HRQL). HRQL was found to decrease as the level of obesity of the respondents increased, thus suggesting an inverse relationship between obesity and HRQL. Obesity causes a number of chronic diseases that include but are not limited to hypertension, diabetes and heart disease (Jia and Lubetkin, 2005, p. 160). The excessive storage of fat causes problems in the free flow of blood in the veins and arteries which can cause severe pain and in some cases, causes heart attack. “Obesity, measured as body mass index, has been identified as a possible risk factor for several solid tumors as well as some adult hematopoietic malignancies” (Strom et al., 2009). Obesity causes increase an individual’s susceptibility to accidents. Obesity has been frequently identified as a causal factor of asthma, though the published literature shows heterogeneity with respect to the role of obesity in asthma especially in men. Beuther and Sutherland (2007) conducted a research to analyze the relation between obesity and asthma in which they explored the online bibliographic databases to locate prospective researches that evaluated the correlation between BMI and incident asthma. The research concluded in a case-and-effect relationship between obesity and asthma for adults. “Overweight and obesity are associated with a dose-dependent increase in the odds of incident asthma in men and women, suggesting asthma incidence could be reduced by interventions targeting overweight and obesity” (Beuther and Sutherland, 2007). Hampel, Abraham, and El-Seraq (2005) conducted a meta-analysis of the risk factors of gastroesophageal reflux disease and found obesity to be a significant cause. “Obesity is associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk for GERD symptoms, erosive esophagitis, and esophageal adenocarcinoma. The risk for these disorders seems to progressively increase with increasing weight” (Hampel, Abraham, and El-Seraq, 2005). Obesity has also been identified as a causal factor of diabetes. Rana et al. (2007) conducted a prospective research to find the relation between obesity and type 2 diabetes. To achieve this Rana et al. (2007) included female nurses that had no previous record of diabetes. An analysis of the 16 years of follow up between 1986 and 2002 led to the conclusion that both physical inactivity and obesity increase an individual’s susceptibility to the type 2 diabetes, with obesity being a more significant contributor to the development of the type 2 diabetes than physical inactivity. Obesity limits the physical activity of the affected people, and thus has many psychological effects on adults suffering from it. One of the most commonly observed psychological effects of obesity among adults is consciousness and inferiority complex. Obese adults are generally aware of the negative impression their obesity casts on people, and are thus not comfortable discussing it. This can be estimated from the fact that obese adults generally tend to over-report their heights and under-report their weights as compared to the non-obese adults (Palta et al., 1982, and Rowland, 1990). “For a weight-conscious individual who is not physically active, a counterintuitive increase in obesity emerges under a certain condition, but for a weight-conscious individual who engages in physical activity, ambiguity takes over again” (Yaniv, Rosin, and Tobol, n.d., p. 21). Many obese adults have gone through sad experiences because of the general negative perceptions about the obesity and people affected from it in the society. Puhl et al. (2007) conducted a qualitative research to study the subjective experiences of weight bias of 274 obese women and 44 obese men. The research participants expressed a wish to bring a change in the public’s general perceptions about the obese people and to increase their awareness about the complications of weight loss and emotional effects of being stigmatized. Puhl et al. (2007) did not find a significant difference between the perceptions and opinions of the obese men and women. Some participants indicated self-blame. Sikorski et al. (2011) also emphasized upon the risk of internal stress factors experienced by the obese adults that are stigmatized. “While external influences on weight are considered as well, it seems that internal factors are rated to be of higher importance” (Sikorski et al. 2011). While there are few people who can continue to starve for considerable time, there are others who commence the dieting but cannot maintain it. This causes them to feel extreme hunger, and they end up eating even more than what they would have eaten had they not missed the last meal. This is known as binge eating. Grilo and Masheb (2000) conducted a qualitative study by interviewing the patients of the binge eating disorder (BED) to analyze the implications of the sequence of dieting and binge eating onset in the BED. 65 per cent of the research participants indulged in binge eating after dieting (DIETfirst) while the rest of the 35 per cent started dieting after binge eating (BINGEfirst). The second group of participants whose diet was preceded by binge eating was found to be teased more about their weight as compared to the first group. Comparative study of the research done by Puhl et al. (2007) and Grilo and Masheb (2000) suggests that both the studies found immense likelihood of the obese people to be perceived negatively in the society and be teased by the society. The same weight-consciousness among the obese adults was reported by Palta et al. (1982) and Rowland (1990). However, Grilo and Masheb (2000) found more likelihood of being teased in the (BINGEfirst) group as compared to the (DIETfirst) group. From this, it can be inferred that social teasing resulting from obesity leads an adult to follow intense diet schedule. In order to tackle the challenges associated with obesity, there is also a need to provide the patients with counseling in addition to the regular measures and exercises that are suggested. Conclusion Concluding, obesity has surfaced as a potential health issue in the contemporary age. Obesity is a potential threat to the peace of life. Causes of obesity include overeating, consumption of junk food, limited physical activity, and ethnicity. Research shows greater tendency of the African American women to become obese than women belonging to other ethnicities. The technological advancement in general and the introduction of computers in particular are responsible for the overweight and obesity of adults in the contemporary age. A potential causal factor of obesity among adults is the busy lifestyle. Although computers have facilitated human beings in innumerable ways, yet a potential negative implication of the use of computers on the everyday life of people is weight gain. Even if the use of computer is not involved in the nature of job, still the time spent on work is not utilized in exercise or physical workout anyway. The pop culture has emphasized upon the importance of consuming junk food. There has occurred a tremendous increase in the number of junk food making restaurants with the development of media, particularly TV, computers and most importantly internet. Having seen so much of these commercials, people have been mentally convinced to make the junk food a regular part of their lifestyle. This has caused over-consumption of junk foods by the adults and has caused many to add kilos of weight, thus becoming overweight or obese. There are several long-term physical and psychological consequences of obesity on adults. The psychological consequences of obesity include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, looks-consciousness, and nervousness. Skinny models are displayed in beautiful attires on the cover pages of popular magazines, billboards, newspapers and TV commercials, which make an appeal to the audiences to control their diet in order to look as beautiful as them, thus causing depression in the obese adults. This effect in turn enhances the obesity as people derive their motivation to starve from these models in an attempt to become more attractive, and end up eating more out of hunger and frustration. There is a whole range of non-biologic factors that cause obesity in adults. While adults with overweight are likely to follow a strict dieting plan to control their weight, the onset of obesity inculcates resistance in adults to go on dieting. The physical consequences of obesity among adults include unemployment, difficulty of movement, and laziness. In addition to that, obesity also increases an adult’s tendency to suffer from different kinds of diseases and poor health conditions that include but are not limited to hypertension, diabetes, and various kinds of heart diseases. Obesity causes blockage in the arteries which can lead to heart attack. Social exclusion, affected sexual life, anxiety and depression are some of the long-term consequences of obesity among adults. Obesity affects the social networking of adults as they cannot frequently socialize with others in public places owing to their nervousness as well as limited tendency to move around. Obesity has many negative implications upon the life of an adult. References: Allender, S, Peto, V, Searborough, P, Boxer, A and Rayner, M 2006, Diet, Physical Activity and Obesity Statistics, London: British Heart Foundation. 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