Childhood obesity solutions articles
Michael wieting, do, and effect in childhood obesity: solutions for a national journal of the american osteopathic association, october 2008, vol. In addition, childhood obesity has serious psychosocial consequences, such as low self-esteem, lower quality of life, and depression. The multifaceted causes and solutions to this pervasive health issue are discussed in the present review, as are pertinent health policy issues. As a result of these and many other factors, childhood obesity has reached epidemic the 1970s, the rate of obesity more than doubled among us children aged 2 to 5 years,1,4 and recent data from studies conducted by the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc)5-7 indicate that this increased prevalence of obesity applies to all ethnicities in this age group. 4 according to the institute of medicine, more than 9 million children and young adults older than 6 years are overweight or ood obesity increases the risk of multiple acute and chronic medical problems as well as psychological issues, all of which can persist into adulthood and adversely affect quality of life. Health issues related to obesity are also linked with decreased life estimated 9 million overweight children—including 4. In the past 3 decades, the annual cost of managing obesity-related diseases among children and adolescents increased more than threefold, from $35 million in 1979-1981 to $127 million in 1997-1999. However, the cdc estimates that a 10% weight loss could decrease an overweight person's lifetime medical costs by $2200 to $ present review explores the factors that contribute to childhood obesity and presents options for prevention through education, regulation, and the increased involvement of osteopathic physicians and other healthcare of childhood cause of childhood obesity is certainly debated. Regardless of the outcomes of this debate, these key factors have likely worked together to increase the prevalence of childhood overweight and , gender, and societal y among children and adolescents is spreading across lines of race, gender, and socioeconomic status, but the greatest increase in prevalence is currently seen among african american, hispanic, and native american children. The prevalence of obesity is particularly high among mexican american males (more than 27% of children and adolescents) and african american females (22% of children and 29% of adolescents). 22 obese children are five times more likely to avoid participating in sports and other school activities and have lower emotional, social, and school al factors also play a role in childhood obesity. For example, in 2005, only 45% of ninth grade and 22% of 12th grade students attended daily physical education limited physical activity during and after school contributes to childhood obesity. 27 as a result, only 21% of school children attend physical education classes each low levels of physical activity have been shown to contribute to obesity and consequent circulatory problems. As little as 3 hours of aerobic exercise per week significantly reduced the effects of obesity on blood vessels.
Furthermore, children in schools with more frequent physical education activity were more likely to have normal body r, some studies32,33 have suggested that physical education classes are not enough to curb childhood obesity. Studies32,33 suggest that increased afterschool activity outdoors in parks or sport facilities may be more effective in preventing childhood ns about advertising on children's television were first raised in the early 1970s by action for children's television, a children's advocacy group that urged the federal trade commission (ftc) to limit or forbid direct advertising to children. A lancet survey51 showed that for each additional serving of sugar-sweetened beverage children consumed, the frequency of childhood obesity and average body mass index (bmi) increased. In fact, dental caries is the single most common chronic childhood disease and is five times more common than described, schools provide an increasing amount of unhealthy fast food to their students. Such diets—which are often energy dense, low in fiber, and high in fat—have also been reported to contribute to childhood professional health organizations and advocacy groups support legislation that would address the growing problem of childhood obesity. In considering both sides of the regulation issue, as well as research outside the realm, osteopathic physicians and other healthcare providers can work with their patients and community leaders to influence nutritional and physical activity standards to fight the cy and strategies have been suggested to curb the problem of childhood obesity. In june 2007, the expert committee on the assessment, prevention, and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity,28,55 which comprises representatives from 15 national health and nutrition organizations, issued recommendations for the assessment (figure 1) and treatment (figure 2) of overweight and obese us department of agriculture approves school meal programs, but they do not regulate the nutritional content of most snacks and other high-calorie foods. The center for consumer freedom (ccf), an advocacy group underwritten largely by food makers, opposes federal intervention and insists that advertising aimed at children is not a main contributing factor for childhood obesity. 61,62 as stated in one study,63 “it is often assumed that the increase in pediatric obesity has occurred because of an increase in caloric intake. The ccf points to scientific evidence63-65 which shows that the most meaningful contributor to childhood obesity is a lack of physical izing the potential impact of soft drinks, the ccf cites another study,64 which revealed that children from schools with and without sales of soft drinks consumed an average of 33. The ccf also cites a harvard study65 of more than 14,000 adolescents that found no link between soft-drink consumption and obesity. 66 the group argues that holding restaurants and food companies responsible for food choices is irrational and attempts to make food sellers, manufacturers, or distributors liable for obesity. This group opposes linking food advertising to childhood obesity, stating that decisions regarding “good” and “bad” foods belong in the hands of responsible osteopathic athic physicians, their allopathic counterparts, and other healthcare professionals have numerous opportunities to encourage children, adolescents, and their parents to engage in healthy lifestyles, to influence their awareness of obesity as a health issue, and to offer education regarding prevention and treatment options. However, in order for healthcare professionals to play a pivotal role in combating childhood obesity, their approach will have to go beyond routine medical office is important to recognize the influence of family, educational, social, cultural, environmental, economic, and political forces on the health of children.
Systematic threats to the health of us children, including obesity, cannot be adequately addressed by individual efforts that are limited to the clinical office setting. The implementation of catch programs has been responsible for efforts to reduce fat content of school lunches, increase physical activity and the number of physical education classes, and influence students' self-reported eating habits and levels of physical e healthy lifestyle choicesprovide nutritional fitness and psychological counseling to overweight adolescentsreplace television with fun and simple exerciseenhance awareness about the scope and complications of childhood obesity and its effect on school performancemodify school policy regarding foods served in school lunchescreate obesity clinics and clinic-based healthy lifestyle aap also advocates for physicians to assume leadership positions where they can serve as agents of change in the abundant areas of opportunity in childhood obesity prevention. Such efforts include promoting physical activity in many settings, decreasing availability of low-nutrition foods in schools, working with policymakers to support healthy lifestyles for children, and encouraging research into mechanisms to prevent overweight and obesity in athic physicians, who are in key positions to take roles as leaders and advocates, should consider using their influence to emphasize that preventing obesity is as important as other well-accepted health strategies such as routine immunizations. The american osteopathic association recently took steps to support some of these efforts (resolution b02 [m/2008]—pediatric obesity; resolution b03 [m/2008]—pediatric obesity/measurement; and resolution b04 [m/2008]—pediatric nutrition). Further resolutions should be considered by the osteopathic medical profession that would require physical activity in schools. Likewise, we may wish to assess the effect of advertising aimed at youth regarding poor nutritional choices, such as discontinuing the availability of high sugar–content beverages in is no universal agreement among stakeholders regarding how best to address the issue of childhood obesity. Because obesity is a complex sociocultural issue, many advocate that only a multifaceted approach spearheaded at the federal level will offer the best opportunity to address this pervasive tive strategies have to be directed at children, parents, school systems, and educators. Abundant evidence demonstrates the benefit of behavioral change to combat obesity and its researchers and medical practitioners agree that exercise and appropriate nutrition are essential for obesity prevention and optimal health. Federal agencies such as the us department of health and human services could train childhood educators on obesity prevention and provide grants to promote collaborative services to at-risk youth. Likewise, increased physical activity may help prevent and reduce childhood obesity, but recommending more exercise will not have much impact if physical education programs are not available. Key part of any multifaceted solution to the childhood obesity problem may be to consider national guidelines to regulate the advertising and marketing of foods. The current epidemic of childhood obesity, if left unchecked, may result in today's children having shorter and less healthy lives than their parents. Pmcid: pmc1280362environewsniehs newssharing solutions for childhood obesityernie hood copyright and license information ►copyright this is an open access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any ing to a 2004 report by the institute of medicine committee on prevention of obesity in children and youth, approximately 9 million american children over 6 years of age are considered obese—that is, they have a body mass index (bmi) equal to or greater than the 95th percentile as calculated by the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc). Rates of obesity also are much higher among some populations and in certain geographic areas.
In the past three decades, it has more than doubled in children aged 2–5 and 12–19, and more than tripled in children aged 6– is currently a wide variety of activity at all levels aimed at reducing the epidemic of childhood obesity, as shown by the gathering of more than 700 experts from many fields in early june 2005 for environmental solutions to obesity in america’s youth, a conference sponsored by the niehs. The meeting followed up on the success of a similar event held in 2004, which was aimed primarily at identifying research opportunities and needs to help design a research agenda related to environment and obesity. Department of health and human services secretary michael leavitt, and arkansas governor mike nting the factorsas several participants pointed out, human genetics and biology don’t change quickly enough to account for spiking obesity rates of the past 30 years, so a complex array of environmental factors that influence individual behavior is clearly at the root of the epidemic, in both children and adults. At a press conference announcing the forthcoming awarding of $5 million in nih/cdc research grants addressing obesity and the environment, schwartz said that defining the interface between environmental components and individual choices will be crucial to building a solid evidence base to support and refine efforts to stem the obesity tide. Obesity greatly increases a child’s risk in adulthood of developing and dying from serious chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and certain cancers. If left unchecked, the public health burden of childhood obesity will only continue to g common groundspeaker david mccarron described the work of shaping america’s youth (say), a public–private partnership that recently conducted a national survey of programs directed at physical activity and nutrition in children. The goal is to foster dialogue at the community level, and ultimately develop a national action plan to combat childhood obesity. People are committed, but the problem is [the effort to address childhood obesity is] not organized, it’s not being sustained, it’s probably not directed at the right age group, and we need to take this commitment and interest and really get it focused . The local socioeconomic environment, with often profound disparities in physical and financial access to healthy foods and physical activity, may contribute to the obesity epidemic, particularly among minority groups, who tend to suffer even higher obesity rates than the general population. Adam drewnowski, director of the center for public health nutrition at the university of washington, addressed this concept and showed that in his area of washington state, geographic information system mapping of the distribution of obesity rates demonstrated an association of higher obesity rates with lower socioeconomic status and limited access to healthy foods. Roland sturm, a senior economist at rand, presented data from his recent unpublished national study of the impact of suburban sprawl on the development of chronic health conditions, including obesity. Glendening, who is now president of the nonprofit smart growth leadership institute, believes that incorporating opportunities for physical activity into built environment design is an important part of the mix to fight childhood obesity. A variety of venuesthe battle against childhood obesity is being fought on many different fronts. The conference highlighted several nongovernmental initiatives that are addressing the problem in imaginative ways, with the goal of sharing what’s working and what isn’ permanente has adopted a strategy of emphasizing prevention of childhood obesity in its programs.
The organization is also actively engaged in anti-obesity coalitions and partnerships through its healthy eating, active living (heal) on the run, a 12-week program aimed at third- to fifth-grade girls, combines training for a five-kilometer run with life skills development and lessons to enhance self-esteem, all of which can help reduce or prevent obesity. And canadian cities, with more than 50,000 girls media environment is an influential element in the obesity landscape, in both negative and positive ways. Department of transportation are working to make walking and biking to school safe and appealing to r session highlighted several new tools, measures, and methods that have been developed to help reliably assess environment–obesity connections, such as assessments of park characteristics, urban design walkability, and aspects of the “nutrition environments” (the quality and availability of foods, and types of food outlets in discrete settings such as schools and neighborhoods). These methodological advances will help to provide a much-needed validated evidence base for use in evaluating the effectiveness of obesity treatment and prevention programs. There was a broad consensus at the conference that those simple steps are the best ways to both treat and prevent childhood ing away at obesityalthough reversing the epidemic of childhood obesity will require long-term efforts and long-term commitments from all stakeholders, dearry is optimistic that if certain aspects of the environment can be successfully modified, the explosive growth of childhood obesity can be at least reduced, if not eliminated, within the next 5–10 years. You can make the doors open, and we can whittle down childhood obesity piece by piece. Directly to directly to a to z directly to directly to page directly to site receive email updates about this page, enter your email address:Micronutrient and local gies to prevent end on and local programs community efforts healthy living related is no single or simple solution to the obesity epidemic. There are several ways state and local organizations can create a supportive environment to promote healthy living behaviors that prevent and local ces are available to help disseminate consistent public health recommendations and evidence-based practices for state, local, territorial and tribal public health organizations, grantees, and g your body mass index (bmi), achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, and getting regular physical activity are all actions you can take for yourself to combat reverse the obesity epidemic, community efforts should focus on supporting healthy eating and active living in a variety of settings. Learn about different kinds of physical activity and the guidelines for the amount needed each about the seriousness of childhood obesity and how to help your child establish healthy ion, physical activity and obesity prevention strategies and guidelines provides guidance for program managers, policy makers, and others on how to select receive email updates about this page, enter your email address:Micronutrient and local formats help:how do i view different file formats (pdf, doc, ppt, mpeg) on this site? Powerpoint last reviewed: october 27, last updated: october 27, on of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity, national center for chronic disease prevention and health physical education cy for physical education and physical ics & physical ce-based physical rds & al & state core standards & health assessment hensive school physical activity ations & research relevant ops & 's move active schools. 12 physical nated school oom activities & se: the path to a child’s healthy ber 15th, 2010 by obesity epidemic among youth today only continues to escalate. Besides physical benefits, such as improved bone and muscle strength, exercise is also shown to also improve one’s emotional and psychological taking up physical exercise early in life, children have the advantage of a leaner, stronger figure, with lower risks of obesity. For example, spark, a well established and award-winning public health organization, is combating obesity through providing educators with research-based physical activity programs for pre-k – 12 grade students. Starting sports at an earlier age will decrease the childhood tendency toward sedentary activities inside the home when physical alternatives are not readily ishing lifelong healthy exercise habits begins in childhood.
Lack of physical activity has been correlated with the ongoing surge in obesity, as well as the development of chronic health problems. The opportunity to strive towards a healthy future that includes exercise as part of the normal, daily routine will then be anticipated with ongoing enthusiasm amongst today’s : childhood obesity, physical activity, physical activity for children, physical pe class a good time to teach about nutrition?