Describing a health challenge The increasing percentage of obesity in Romania and Kenya

Over the last 20 years, obesity has become one of the most concerning problems among Romanian people. The amazing conjuncture of both social and political factors which led to an increase in the number of overweight people has been changing from 1989 until present time. The year of 1989 marked the fall of the Romanian Communism and had a massive impact over Romanians lifestyle. In other words, it changed with 180 degrees a life full of social restrictions. It is then when all the Western habits and traditions managed to invade our fragile country from Eastern Europe. From our point of view, this was the moment when things got a wrong turn. Besides the benefits which came along with the political changes, there was also the feeling of freedom which we think it was pushed behind some important limits considering the populations general lifestyle. Ever since then, Romanians have a larger posibility to explore other countries cultures and also, what is essential, they have the power to decide over their life. Some recent studies show that these changes werent used the right way: - firstly, there are those busy and stressed people who put their job on the top of their priority list and forget to take care of their health: they eat fast food and dont organiz e their meals properly; -secondly, there are those sedentary persons, who eat properly, but dont want to make place in their life for sport and fitness activities. These are the two most common issues which lead to a growth in the number of obese people in Romania. The same situation is described in Kenya: lifestyle diseases have become very rampant with the latest health reports showing an increasing percentage in heart diseases and diabetes especially among the obese people. This has come about with the improved lifestyles, higher disposable incomes and a lot of adoption of the western lifestyle and cultures. There is a growing number of people eating junk foods like Pizzas, Burgers, chips and carbonated drinks thinking that it is a good thing and it is what people with good money do. There are also others that due to work and busy schedules do not have time to fix themselves good well balanced meals and therefore opt to go for junk/ fast foods loaded with bazillion calories as they are readily available. It is no wonder that world renowned fast food chains are seeing a great potential in Kenya, just like they did about a decade ago in Romania. KFC (Kentucky fried chicken) has recently started its operations in Kenya, while other South African based chains like INNSCOR (pizza inn, Galittos, Creamy inn) have already been making a kill in the major cities.There are rumours that MacDonalds among other

chains will be setting up operations in Kenya soon. These chains are creating a great load of excitement among the children, youth, young adults and even a number of middle aged folks. What they dont realize is that these junk foods are to be taken in moderation and should not be a substitute to normal balanced healthy home cooked meals. Currently there are no clear systems set up to monitor this latest predicament. It is not until people become obese and are diagonized with lifestyle related diseases like hypertension and diabetes that they start struggling to lose the weight by exercising and taking calorie controlled diets. On Thursday 23rd May 2013 , the national Kenyan news paper carried a disturbing story by a health expert Victor Ombeka that noted an increase on the number of deaths due to unhealthy life styles attributing that the deaths in Nairobi and its environs were due to the fact that people in these areas are not active and are therefore candidates to obesity. On the other side, the people incharged with the public health evaluation In Romania took attitude as soon as this problem was foreseen. From what weve seen, many health campaigns were developed in the country, unfortunately, with not high success. A lot of people were involved in the process, from the base point of structuring this kind of campaings to the point where the final products reached the target population. High economical funds are still allocated in this field of healthcare in order to wisen people to take more care of their nutrition and their lifestyle in general. Doctors, medical students and also young volunteers work together to conceive short movies, clips, flyers, posters and banners in order to draw peoples attention over all the risks which obesity involves. This way, Romania benefits of important resources which can be used in order to lower the rate of obesity. However, the most important problem remains peoples attitude. Ignorance is the hardest to change. Obese people have access to information not only in Hospitals, but also on the street or on TV. Not paying attention to it leads sometimes to disastruous consequences over ones health. Furthermore, most of the people are aware of their problematic situation but decide that change is too much for them. This way, outside help is kept away even from the start. Taking a closer look at this health issue, it can be easily stated that the number of obese people is higher in the urban environment rather than the rural one. In Romania, it is generally known that people who live in villages have a healthier lifestyle. This is not only because of the lack of pollution, but also because daily work on the field brings them both physical exercise and natural, healthy food to eat. Furthermore, the worst part of this health challenge is the fact that scientist show an increase in the number of overweight children, the majority of them belonging to families where both parents are obese. They consider the genetical factors to be essential in the development of obesity but also the environment in which a child grows is crucial to his future nutritional habit, the results directly affecting their metabolism.

The way obesity was handled in the last couple of years doesnt seem to be very effective. This health problem remains one of the most concerning and it is still in a continuous growth. The deficiency in the Romanian system is not in the economical funding, personnel or technologies to use, but in the effect of information over the target pacient. There is general availability and access of mobile phones among Romanian and Kenyan children,youth,young adults and the middle aged. The last ones are more economically empowered with rising amounts of disposable incomes and with access to blue collar jobs,therefore being able to improve their lifestyles. In conclusion, it is imperative to find a better way to communicate with obese pacients. There has to be a way to reach them and awaken their self consciousness, in order to avoid tragic health complications. There is need to develop a mobile health application that will continually sensitize people on their eating habits. The content would be interactive,so that people can access information, send information in form of texts and emails, get feedback as well as well as interact with other users .The content in this mobile health invention will be made in a clear, easy to use simple way, so as to ensure people will use the application. There are so many social interactions within mobile phones and linking this application to other existing applications would be an added advantage. There is great success in Kenya with Mobile Money (Mpesa) and it is clear with the recent trends other helpful inventions would be highly appreciated.People in Kenya as well as in Romania are eager to try out new technologies as long as there is good support and the excitement is maintained. The areas we would want to look at considering mobile health would be: - Diseases prevention and support - Emergency response - Disease surveillance

Alexandra Matei Irene Mwende Team 40718