Childhood Obesity: An epidemic in the making

Elisa Calaunan

Nevada State College

Psychology 430

Richard Yao
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Abstract

When you think of obesity affecting children you are appalled by the fact as parents we

let it get that far. Life has changed there are new obstacles that we have to get over and stay over

to not be part of a growing pandemic. In the essay on you will learn the causes of obesity in

children, consequences of being obese, the trends that are ongoing at this time, the psychosocial

affects it has on children who are obese, as well as the steps you can take to overcome obesity in

children. There are many factors that come into play when we analyze the growing trends of

obesity in are kids today.

Factors that portray a big significance in a child who is trying to overcome these

problems include biological factors, behavior factors, and psychosocial factors. You will begin to

obtain an understanding of some of these specifics I have pointed out. There is much more

research and initiatives that are coming to help these childrens change and live a stress free life.

I will point those out as well and give a brief description of what these programs are trying to

achieve to help are children of today.

Keywords: Childhood obesity, environmental factors, psychosocial affects.

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What is Childhood Obesity?

The epidemic of children become overweight or obese has increased over the

years and is becoming more prevalent as the times continue. The statistics say that The

prevalence of obesity among children belonging to the age group of 6-11 years has risen from

6.5 percent in 1980 to 19.6 in the year of 2008. Adolescents in the age group of 12-19 years the

prevalence has raised from 5 percent in 1980 to 18.1 percent in 2008, (2007 ygoy.com). In my

eyes it doesnt seem like so many, but in reality it is an epidemic on the rise. There are

preventions being put into play as I we speak, the new campaign Michelle Obama is doing for

the children. Lets understand the factors that lead to these ever progressing statistics that need to

be prevented.

Environmental/Behavioral/Genetic Factors of Childhood Obesity

A big eye opener when it comes to childhood obesity is the calorie intake of these

children because more children are beginning to eat away from home, because of the

convenience it is for the parents. Little do they realize that, it does have an effect on their

children and as parents they need to prevent these things from getting out of control. When we

talk about this it is almost as if you can compare eating too much as an addiction like any other. I

recently saw a video of a child who is a two year old chain smoker and his mother does not know

how to stop it. Prevent things while you still have a chance.

The first we will begin to examine in the contributing factors of childhood obesity is the

Biological factors. This includes the dietary factors, and the family conditions the child is living.
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How this affects the childs weight gain and issues in the childhood. The risks of these to sub

factors have a big effect on most children.

Dietary factors are a big part, and people are trying to prevent this and provide healthier

alternatives for children to eat. A big unhealthy factor of this all is the fact that parents are

relying more on fast foods then cooking a healthy home cooked meal. With not only the fact that

parents are turning to these high calorie diets, they also tend to live a life of low physical activity

which contributes to these problems. In a recent study, they examined the physical activity and

food intake patterns of parents and the changes of weight over 2 years of offspring. This is what

they began to conclude: Girls of parents with high dietary intake and low physical activity

(obesogenic) had significantly greater increases in weight status, (Melinda S., Stewart T.

Gordon, T. Von Almen K. 2006). In the same book they state that Infancy is also consider a

critical period for obesity developmentA high protein intake at the age of 2 years was show to

promote an increased fatness at 8 years of age, suggesting that a high protein diet early in life

could promote an increased risk of obesity later in childhood, (Melinda S., Stewart T., Gordon

T. Von Almen K. 2006). Also as a child, this economy goes up and down and to what I had

stated previously about parents not taking time to cook dinner and relying on fast food chains to

provide them a meal is also a leading cause to this epidemic. In 1992, children aged 6-14 years

ate in quick-serve restaurants on average 157 million times a month, (Collins A. 2000-2007).

The percentages of increases in families eating away from home are increasing at an alarming

rate: Children are getting more of their food away from home. Energy intake from away-from-

home food sources increased from 20 to 32 percent from 1977-1978 to 1994-1996, (Lin BH,

Guthrie J, Frazao E. 1999). Once that is established its hard not to eat out, because of the ever

growing convenience of the fast food places, and their ever growing media that reels many
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families in. Another issue is the one of snacks; on a personal level I know this one because when

you go through everyday life and are rushing you rely on snacks to get you through the day.

Daily total energy intake that children derived from energy dense (high calorie) snacks

increased by approximately 121 kilocalories between 1977 and 1996, (Jahns L, Siega-Riz AM,

Popkin BM 2001). Portion sizes have increased over the years: Portion sizes increased between

1977 and 1996. Average portion sizes increased for salty snacks from 1.0 oz to 1.6 oz and for

soft drinks from 12.2 oz to 19.9 oz., (Nielsen SJ, Popkin BM. 2003). Dietary factors stretch

along the food systems but these few that I mention are the most significant in the trends that are

most effecting are children today. There are those little things that contribute such as breakfast

consumption is down the drain; milk consumption is low, as well as soda consumption is at a

high. Energy intake of these various foods have a strain on childrens health thats why parents

need to be aware of what is becoming of our children today.

Family factors which is consistent with the socioeconomic status of families, plays a part

in the statistics of these obese children for the following reasons. It weighs more down the line of

parental influences, because children all have limits and boundaries and parents set those. If

parent isnt stricter in some areas of a childs life it leads to the children becoming out of control.

Constraints on parents time potentially contribute to childrens weight problems, as working

parents probably rely more heavily than non-working parents on prepared, processed, and fast

foods, which generally have high calorie, high fat, and low nutritional content, (U.S DH&HS.

2000). Many children in our society today have parents who work and have to continually bring

in the income, which leads to children being left home alone and then in most times make poor

choices. Children left unsupervised after school may make poor nutritional choices and engage

in more sedentary activities. Children may spend a great deal of time indoors, perhaps due to
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safety concerns, watching TV or playing video games rather than engaging in more active

outdoor pursuits, (Anderson, Butcher,& Levine,2003). There is also a recent study of parental

influence during infancy, where it is healthier for a child to breastfeed because they will consume

until full, where as if the baby is formula fed they are encouraged to finish the whole bottle

(Bonuck, K 2004). What I believe parents need to take into account is the fact that: Parent-child

interactions and the home environment can affect the behaviors of children and youth related to

calorie intake and physical activity. Parents are role models for their children who are likely to

develop habits similar to their parents, (CDC 2009).

One of the major concerns of children is their lack of physical activity in this day and

age. The issues plaguing children to sit around and do completely nothing all day is the issue of

technology. Children rely on television, game systems, computers, and telephones to provide

their daily life. With all that it doesnt need any movement involved, which leads to lazy and

inactive children of today. It is estimated that children in the United States are spending 25

percent of their waking hours watching television and statistically, children who watch the most

hours of television have the highest incidence of obesity, (Robinson, T. N. 2001). When reading

this you wonder what is really going on, because in high school I loved physical sports, it was

engaging and provided you a sense of achievement with yourself. I think with children today

there is more underlying mental problems going on where as children to teens tend to avoid the

obvious and stress eat. Research indicates that a decrease in daily energy expenditure without a

concomitant decrease in total energy consumption may be the underlying factor for the increase

in childhood obesity, (IOM 2004). This is the biggest indicator because energy intake is

increasing but releasing this energy is not happening due to the lack of physical activity.
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Currently, schools are decreasing the amount of free play or physical activity that children

receive during school hours. Only about one-third of elementary children have daily physical

education, and less than one-fifth have extracurricular physical activity programs at their

schools," (U.S. DH & HS). This issue is so very true, I remember in elementary getting about 20

minutes of play time now it reduced down to ten or less, because at a school I observed for class.

Students play at recess first, and then eat lunch which makes no sense for the reason being they

should eat then play to burn off the energy they just gained. Physical activity comes to play with

the facts of children needing to burn off their energy consumption by some type of physical

activities. For instant we take this notion for granted, these are the issues of children who display

little to no physical activity and engage in Sedentary behavior: contribute to increased energy

consumption through excessive snacking and eating meals in front of the TV, influence children

to make unhealthy food choices through exposure to food advertisements, and lower children's

metabolic rate. These issues are other underlying factors that plague are children today.

Genetics is there a possibility some can obtain to be obese because of their genes? I say

yes and no, I genes can predict a lot but there is always that little thing called prevention and

change. I know there are those cases where it is completely inevitable to fight your genetic

makeup and with that you have to leave it as is. Certain genetic characteristics may increase an

individuals susceptibility to excess body weight, however, there are likely to be many genes

involved and a strong interaction between genetics and environment that influences the degree of

excess body weight. It has been shown that overweight tends to run in families suggesting a

genetic link. In some cases, parental obesity is a stronger predictor of childhood overweight than

the childs weight status alone, (American Academy of Pediatrics 2003). With that being stated

is the factor of susceptibility to have excess body weight, which means in these statistical finding
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that children are becoming over weight not because of mainly genetics its because of the parents

being overweight, which leads to childrens bad eating habits. In several early studies on the

familial history 75 woman who were classified to be overweight: He observed that 43% had an

overweight mother, 15% had an overweight father, and 25% had both and overweight mother

and father; thus 83% had either or both parents overweight, (Bouchard C. 1994). There is more:

Gurney also looked for Mendelian segregation among the progeny of different matings.

Among 89 offspring of overweight persons, 73% were classified as being overweight and 27%

as normal weight, (Bouchard C. 1994). With that being said genetics plays some roll in a childs

obese natures, meaning if your mother is considered obese, it is likely that as you grow you will

become obese as well. On a personal level, I dont think you inherit the obese gene, I think you

inherit your parents eating habits.

Health risks and Consequences of Childhood Obesity

Along with all these factors of child obesity, these issues lead to the significant

consequences and health risks that come along living this life style. A child, who is obese, goes

through multiple health complications, especially if there is no prevention. The list of possible

complication goes on and on. Starting with listing a few Asthma, Diabetes (which is really big as

of now among children), gallstones, heart disease, high blood pressure, liver problems, menstrual

problems, trouble sleeping, and metabolic syndrome (USCF 2001-2010). These risks can lead to

long term health problems all through your life, not only child hood. Once you get it youre stuck

with it. The only way to prevent these things is to fix, your dietary intake, encourage you
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yourself as a parent to change the environment to make it better, have children do more physical

activity.

Trends in Childhood Obesity

When studying specific things you begin to find trends of specific sources, and you can

relay your search to that. In obesity the trends change and evolve into newer ones, but as of this

time and age there are many different aspects to the trends of today that go together as one. We

will see how these trends are acquired and how in establishing these trends it helps to provide

prevention among these children. The prevalence of obesity in children is increasing and the

way they figure out who it affects more, they begin to start computing trends. What they begin to

find is where obesity in children is more prevalent than other areas. The first area I saw was the

location, comparing the obese rates in children between 2003 and 2007. It was stated in the

National Conference of Legislatures Childhood obesity trends, Kentucky in 2003 the percentage

of children who were obese was 20.6%, it increased by 16.5% in 4 years during 2007. That is a

significant increase in the obesity of children, but this situation in this profound increase in the

epidemic occurs in the majority of the southern states. I did a little math and I came up with the

average of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina from the

information obtained and came up with the average of the increase between them from 2003 to

2007, which is 19.6% of an increase in obese children in the six southern states that I

accumulated ( ). When comparing the seven western states I chose at random, the average

between them of overall obese children in that region is at a 16.9% increase, which is still

extremely high. Then the average between these two significant regions of America is 18.25%

which is increased if I added more states to that math. It is beginning to see where the most

problematic areas are and where these government programs can help these children.
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I came across this article Obesity Prevalence among Low-Income, Preschool-Aged

Children 19982008, which is another basic trend because what I find in my own family.

Because we struggle for the money and to put food on the table we usually go to quick fixes,

because the food market provides that for us, and at alarming cheaper rates, but little do we think

what affects they can have on our children later on. One of 7 low-income, preschool-aged

children is obese, but the obesity epidemic may be stabilizing. The prevalence of obesity in low-

income two to four year-olds increased from 12.4 percent in 1998 to 14.5 percent in 2003 but

rose to only 14.6 percent in 2008, (CDC 2010). That is what is stated that the rate of obese

children between the ages of 2 and 4 are stabilizing, and that they see only a significant increase

in American Indians and Alaska natives. The most recent statistic they provide is from 2008: In

2008, obesity prevalence was highest among American Indian or Alaska Native (21.2 percent)

and Hispanic (18.5 percent) children, and lowest among white (12.6 percent), Asian or Pacific

Islander (12.3 percent), and black (11.8 percent) children, (CDC 2010). This gives us

information about the races that seem to affect childhood obesity the most between the ages of 2-

4 years of age. They arent increasing alarmingly but they are beginning to increase gradually

and that is what we want to prevent, we want these percentages to decrease.

There was an another article written called Prevalence trends in Overweight Among US

children and adolescents, 1999-2000 which conveys the study from the NHANES. There was a

study taken during 1999-2000 by the National health and Nutrition Examination Survey that

observes the obesity trend in children age groups and their race. The age groups range from

Birth-19 years old and are in three different groups they examine are non-Hispanic white, non-

Hispanic black, Mexican American. They surveyed a total of 4722 children: 685 birth- 2yrs, 739

2-5yrs, 1054 6-11yrs, 2244 12-19yrs (Ogden C. Flegal K. Carroll M. Johnson C. 2002). Their
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results were as followed using the issues between the adolescent stages ages 6 to11. Non-

Hispanic white males were overweight or at risk was 29.4%, Non- Hispanic black males

overweight or at risk was 34.5%, Mexican American males overweight or at risk were 43.0% ( ).

Non- Hispanic white females were 22.8%, Non-Hispanic black females were 37.6%, and

Mexican Americans females were 35.1% (Ogden C. Flegal K. Carroll M. Johnson C. 2002).

Between these three races and female and male aspects of this trend we now may receive the

mean of this, between the males of ages 6 to 11, the percentages is 35.6%. Whereas with the

females the rate is slightly lower then compared to the males which are 31.8%, the decrease

between men and females is down by 4% which is slightly lower. Which this trend beams a

significant difference in obesity in boys the age of 6-11 and of the females.

The Effects of Psychosocial Factors on Obese Children

Psychosocial effects on obese children plays a big factor in their prevention to change the
way the perceive them self, and give them the ability to want to achieve change. Psychosocial
factors in NGHS show intriguing racial differences of self-perception, particularly in the
domains of physical appearance and social acceptance, (S. Kimm E. Obarzanek 2002). This is
an issue that brings issues to the table, for overweight children because without the confidence to
change its inevitable they wont because that self-esteem is not there. Poor peer relations in
childhood result in considerable risk for internalized symptoms, low self-concept and peer
rejection in adolescence, Obese children and adolescents, relative to their non-overweight
peers, reported more name-calling, teasing about their appearances, (Jelalian E., Steele R.
2008). It goes for both ways, overweight children dont want to change because they become
emotional eaters because of this peer banishing they get because of the way they look. Non-
overweight children try really hard to look perfect so they dont have to feel that peer banishing
that children who are overweight feel. They did a study which showed that Greater peer
victimization was associated with lower levels of physical activity, which was explained in part
by depressive symptoms and greater loneliness, (Jelalian E., Steele R. 2008).

Prevention Programs
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There are many prevention programs that exist today; because of the ever growing
pandemic of childhood obesity is becoming more and more prevalent in todays society. There
are a few I can name off the top of my head, Michelle Obamas campaign to get kids to be more
fit and enjoy more activities outside, Theirs a show on ABC called Food revolution, and
understand the food that is being served to kids.
Conclusion
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References:
1. 2007 ygoy.com
2. Melinda S., Stewart T. Gordon, T. Von Almen K. 2006
3. Collins A. 2000-2007
4. Lin BH, Guthrie J, Frazao E. 1999
5. Jahns L, Siega-Riz AM, Popkin BM 2001
6. Nielsen SJ, Popkin BM. 2003
7. U.S DH&HS. 2000
8. Anderson, Butcher,& Levine,2003
9. Bonuck, K 2004
10. CDC 2009
11. Robinson, T. N. 2001
12. IOM 2004
13. American Academy of Pediatrics 2003
14. Bouchard C. 1994
15. USCF 2001-2010
16. National Conference of Legislatures
17. Ogden C. Flegal K. Carroll M. Johnson C. 2002
18. Jelalian E., Steele R. 2008