Psychological and Social Consequences of Obesity - Term Paper Example

Running head: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF OBESITY Human Development - Psychological and Social Consequences of Obesity Student Number Course Name and Number Name of Professor Date of Submission Total Number of Words: 2,050 Introduction Obesity is referring to excessive amount of body fat in a human body. The World Health Organization (2003) has reported that billions of people all over the world are overweight and roughly 300 million of these individuals are classified as obese. Based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, approximately 17.1% of the 3,958 children who participated in the research study were overweight and that 35% of children between the age brackets of 6 to 19 years old are seriously overweight (Ogden et al., 2006). As part of discussing the human development, this study will first discuss basic information about obesity followed by discussing the psychological and social consequences of obesity. After discussing the factors that contributes to high rate of obesity, some of the recommended ways on how obese individuals can effectively control their weight will be tackled in details. Basic Information about Obesity Obesity is defined as “an excess of body fat that frequently lead to a significant impairment over a person’s health and longevity” (House of Commons Health Committee, 2004). In general, a normal weight is computed using the Body Mass Index (BMI) wherein the normal range for an adult should be between 18.5 to less than 25 (BMI 18.5 to 25 kg/m2). BMI measurement between the ranges of 25 to less than 30 (BMI 25 to 30 kg/m2) is considered overweight and BMI measurement that exceeds 30 (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) is considered obese. The application of BMI method is computed based on the height of a person and age including the waist circumference. Based on the computation result, obesity can be classified either as: (1) Class I (BMI 30 to 34.9 kg/m2); (2) Class II (BMI 35 to 39.9 kg/m2); and (3) Class III (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) (Berg, 2003; NHLBI, 1998). (See Appendix I – Body Mass Index on page 20) There are quite a number of techniques that can be used in measuring body fat. Among these techniques include the use of bioelectrical impedance, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, and the total volume of the body’s water content (Berg, 2003). Since these methods are quite impractical to use, medical practitioners simply adopt the BMI method. Aside from the use of BMI method, medical practitioners can also use the formula “weight in pounds divided by height in inches squared multiplied by 703 or weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared” (Berg, 2003). Psychological and Social Consequences of Obesity Obesity is a serious health problem since it could lead to negative affects related to a person’s physical health, emotional well-being, and psychosocial functioning (Tuthill et al., 2006; Linde et al., 2004; Goodman & Whitaker, 2002). Obese people can sometimes be strongly discriminated in academic and work environment. As part of not being socially accepted, people who extremely over weight would normally to go through a series of depression, low quality of life, and low levels of self-esteem (Frisco, Houle, & Martin, 2010; Kolotkin et al., 1995). With regards to being socially discriminated in academic and work environment, Viner & Cole (2005) explained that obese children who were able to successfully manage having a normal weight at the time they reach adulthood are less likely to become discriminated at work and in public areas whereas obese children who remained extremely overweight during their adulthood age are the ones who are highly affected by having poorer employment opportunities and negative social relationship outcomes. Aside from experiencing work and health care discrimination, the study of Carr & Friedman (2005) revealed that obese individuals are prone to interpersonal mistreatment and lower levels of self-acceptance purely because of their body weight and overall physical appearance. Therefore, most of the obese individuals are suffering from emotional distress as compared with individuals who have normal weight (Mills & Andrianopoulos, 1993). Obese people are prone to experience a very low quality of life (Kolotkin et al., 1995). Using HADS as a tool for identifying the level of patients’ anxiety or depression (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983), the study of Tuthill et al. (2006) revealed that as high as 60% of women and 42% of men as well as 48% of both men and women have experienced anxiety disorder and depression related obesity respectively. It has been known that the common causes of their anxiety and depression in men are associated with obesity’s negative impact over their personal sexual lives, work performance, and public distress. Among obese women, the main causes of anxiety and depression are related to poor sexual life and low self-esteem (Tuthill et al., 2006). A big portion of obese individuals are dealing with social adjustment disorders and social discrimination because of the media’s impact on people’s wrong perception that having slim body among women and masculine body in men are a signs of beauty and masculinity which are necessary for public acceptance (Pearce et al., 2002). Because of public discrimination and humiliation, obesity is considered as a major factor that can lead to weakening of a person’s psychological functioning. Since obese people have the tenacity to look down on themselves for not being physically attractive, they tend to withdraw from socializing or missing some activities at work or in school. A common factor that triggers’ obese indviduals’ depression is caused by social discrimination which could lead to lesser employment opportunities and public acceptance. For these reasons, Wadden & Stunkard (1985) explained that obesity is highly associated with psychiatric disturbances such as “disparagement of body image” and “negative emotional reactions to dieting”. Because of their strong desire to have a slim figure, most of obese women are prone to develop eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia. Common Factors that Contributes to High Rate of Obesity Obesity is not only a serious health condition such as eating disorders but also a lifestyle problem that is visible within a person, family, and the society. In line with this, several studies revealed that obesity is caused by abnormal food intake or poor diet (Styne, 2005), genetic factor such as a metabolic defect (Roth et al., 2004; Rosmond, 2002) or the leptin deficiency and the use of steroids (Link et al., 2004). However, the major cause of obesity is not certain because each person has different capacity of burning calories (Jebb & Prentice, 1995). Lifestyle and sedentary behaviors like ‘playing computer game or watching TV while eating’ is highly associated with obesity (Utter, Scragg & Schaaf, 2006; Tremblay & Willms, 2003; Swinburn & Egger, 2002). Likewise, binge eating or the habit of being unable to control over eating could lead to obesity. Due to the inability to control the amount of food they eat, individuals who have binge eating problems have frequent episodes of eating significantly large amount of food all at the same time (de Zwaan & Mitchell, 1992). For this reason, obese individuals tend to continuously eat even when they are already uncomfortably full. Television advertisement plays a significant role in terms of promoting unhealthy diets. Since television advertisements could easily attract and affect the food preferences of the children, food and advertising companies often target the children more than the adults (Magnus et al., 2009). In line with this, most of the unhealthy food advertisements are using toys, colourful images, convincing music, and popular personalities as a way of effectively capturing the attention of children to patronize unhealthy food products (Morley et al., 2008). Other relevant causes of obesity include environmental factors, cultural environment, and lifestyle issues that are highly related to obesity-conducive environment (Grundy, 1998; Hill & Peters, 1998). As an end result of industrialization, the availability of convenient transportation, elevators and escalators in our society significantly decreasing the level of our physical activities that are required in burning excess calories in our body. Recommended Ways on How Obese Individuals can Effectively Control their Weight The study of Mills & Andrianopoulos (1993) revealed that obese individuals who were extremely overweight since childhood are more likely to face higher levels of emotional distress and psychiatric symptoms as compared to obese individuals who started gaining weight when they are already an adult. To prevent children from going through the social and psychological consequences of obesity, it is important to extending health education to students and their parents on the need to eat nutritious foods using the food pyramid. To help children burn excess calories, each school should encourage the students to actively participate in physical activities related to sports. Binge eaters could easily regain back the weight they have lost. Therefore, obese individuals should go through a cognitive-behavioral therapy which could teach them proper techniques that will enable them to effectively monitor and change their personal eating habits in response to different internal and external stimuli (Braet et al., 2004; Marcus, 1993). Basically, the professional help of interpersonal psychotherapy could enable obese individuals make some necessary changes in their lives with regards to their personal relationships with their friends and family members. Aside from cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention, obese individuals should also be encouraged to participate in self-help group which could provide them with sufficient emotional support as they go through changes in their binge eating habits. With regards to controlling the impact of television advertisement over the increasing trend of obesity among the American children and adults, there is a strong need for public health authorities to support the banning or restriction of television food advertisements that targets the children (Magnus et al., 2009). Even though this particular strategy may cause a strong opposition on the part of the food and advertising industries, banning or restricting television food advertisements that targets the children is considered as a cost-effective population-based intervention strategy that the American government could easily implement. Discussion Obesity could lead to a long list of psychological consequences which normally ranges from having a low self-esteem and displeasure with regards to their own body image up to the point wherein obese individuals could experience severe depression. Because of their high levels of anxiety and dissatisfaction with their own body image and appearance, some obese individuals may end up isolating themselves from other people. The mere fact that obese individuals would isolate themselves from social gatherings would mean impairing the quality of their life. Excessive over weight could also lead to social discrimination not only in school but also in work environment and some cases wherein obese individuals would seek health care intervention from professional doctors. Because of the social and psychological consequences of being obese, it is important for parents to work with a group of health care professionals in order to find ways on how they can prevent their children from becoming extremely overweight. By doing so, parents and health care professionals could save more people from having to go through the social and psychological consequences of obesity. Although some people think that industrialization is a big part that contributes to the increasing rate of obesity, this idea is not true since obesity epidemic is also present in some of the non-industrialised countries particularly in Ghana, Samoa wherein three-fourths of men are obese; and the Cape Peninsula of South Africa with approximately 44% of women are obese (International Obesity Taskforce, 2008). In fact, the high rate of obesity around the world reflects the high incidence of health inequalities since a study revealed that unskilled male and female works are more than four times likely than those professional works to experience Class III obesity. In line with this matter, the Health Survey for England (2001) reported that as low as 14% male and female professional workers are obese as compared with 19% male and 28% female unskilled workers are obese (Chief Medical Officers Report 2002). Conclusion Obesity can negatively affect the psychological and social development of obese individuals. With regards to the psychological consequences of being obese, extremely overweight individuals can experience low self-esteem and body image discontentment. In worst cases, obese individuals can experience high levels of anxiety, severe depression, and social isolation. Because of social discrimination, it is possible for obese individuals to have low quality of life. To protect children from social and psychological consequences of obesity, it is important to gather the children’s parents together with the participation of a multidisciplinary team of medical professionals including: nutritionists, psychologists, physicians and teachers to effectively educate the people on how to prevent the increasing number of obesity among the children. *** End *** Appendix I – Body Mass Index Body Mass Index Chart (English and Metric) To determine your BMI, locate the intersection of your weight and height. Source: www.slimfast.com. Adapted from the National Institute of Health. NHLBI Clinical Guidelines on Overweight and Obesity, June 1998. www.nhlbl.nih.gov/guidelines References Berg, A. O. (2003). Screening for Obesity in Adults: Recommendations and Rationale - U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine , 139(11), 930 - 932. Braet, C., Tanghe, A., Decaluwe, V., Moens, E., & Rosseel, Y. (2004). 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