Childhood Obesity Health Promotion and

Health Development

Aryda Aldana

• According to WHO childhood obesity is one of the major public health problems of the 21st century.

• Swanton, (2008) stated obesity is predicted to affect 60% of adult men, 50% of adult women and 25% of children by 2050.

• This issues introducing children to sickness that are once common only in adults.

• Once considered a high-income country problem, overweight and obesity are now on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

• Obese children and adolescents are at an increased risk of developing various health problems, and are also more likely to become obese adults.

• Most of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.

INTRODUCTION

EPIDEMIOLOGY• The prevalence of child obesity is increasing rapidly worldwide (WHO, 2013). • 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2013 (WHO,

2015).• According to National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), in 2014/15,

19.1% of children in Year 6 (aged 10-11) were obese and a further 14.2% were overweight in England.

• Furthermore, children in Reception (aged 4-5), 9.1% were obese and another 12.8% were overweight. This means a third of 10-11 year olds and over a fifth of 4-5 year olds were overweight or obese.

Percentage of children obese and overweight (including obese) in the UK and Ireland

Source: Public Health England, 2015

CAUSES OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Physical activity, and activity

environment

Societal influences

Food environment

Individual Psychology

Poverty

Obesity

Poverty• Children in low- and middle-income countries are more vulnerable to

inadequate pre-natal, infant and young child nutrition. At the same time, they are exposed to high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt, energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods, which tend to be lower in cost but also lower in nutrient quality.

Individual Psychology • Some children overeat to cope with the problem or to deal with

emotion, such as stress or to fight boredom.

Food environment • The influence of the food environment on an individual's food

choices, for example a decision to eat more fruit and vegetable may be influenced by the availability and quality of fruit and vegetable near home.

Societal influences •The impact of society, for example the influence of the media, education, peer pressure or culture.

Physical activity, and activity environment •Lack of psychical activity play an important part which lead to become obesity. Children are more exposed to the use of advance technology these days as their they tend to watch TV, browse the internet or play computer games, and rarely take regular exercise.•If the children are not active enough, their not use the energy provided by the food their eat, and the extra energy their consume is stored by the body as fat.

CONCLUSION• Childhood obesity poses a major public health threat, it is an issue that is

one of the most difficult obstacles assault globally and actions need to be taken in order to reverse the rising tide of childhood obesity.

• Interventions and policies are important as it helped in reduce the chances to develop a variety of health problems in upcoming years.

REFERENCES• Ebbeling, C., Pawlak, D. and Ludwig, D. (2014). Childhood obesity: public-health crisis,

common sense cure. [online] http://www.allhealth.org/. Available at: http://www.allhealth.org/briefingmaterials/lancetobesityrev-393.pdf [Accessed 11 Dec. 2014].

• Mayo Clinic, (2014). Childhood obesity Complications - Diseases and Conditions - Mayo Clinic. [online] Mayoclinic.org. Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/childhood-obesity/basics/complications/con-20027428 [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014].

• Public Health England, (2016). Child Obesity :: Public Health England Obesity Knowledge and Intelligence team. [online] Noo.org.uk. Available at: http://www.noo.org.uk/NOO_about_obesity/child_obesity [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].

• Sameera Karnik, and Amar Kanekar, (2012). Childhood Obesity: A Global Public Health Crisis. International Journal of Preventive Medicine, [online] 3(1), p.1. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278864/#ref17 [Accessed 10 Dec. 2014].

• Swanton, K. (2008). HealtHy weigHt, HealtHy lives: a toolkit for developing local strategies. [online] Faculty of Public Health. Available at: http://www.fph.org.uk/uploads/full_obesity_toolkit-1.pdf [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].

• World Health Organization, (2015). WHO | Childhood overweight and obesity. [online] Who.int. Available at: http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood/en/ [Accessed 5 March. 2015].