Contemporary

Health Challenge
– Obesity

 Development of Obesity
 Individual Diversity in Obesity
 Group Diversity in Obesity
Contemporary Health Challenge – Obesity
The Donovan family has four children. Both parents are obese.
Their refrigerator is stocked with soda pop and hot dogs. The
oldest child, Jacob, is tall and fit. He is on the football and
basketball teams in high school. His dream is a Division 1 college
athletic scholarship, which he attains. His 8th- and 5th-grade
siblings are both obese and not involved in sports. His Ist-grade
brother is very thin—nicknamed "skinny boy. " If the children are
good all week, they are rewarded on Friday night with a trip to a
fast-food restaurant and a double-feature video at home. The real
motive Jor the reward is that the parents are too tired to cook after
they get home from work.

Contemporary Health Challenge – Obesity

The World Health Organization has declared obesity one of the
top health problems in developed nations. In the United States,
the number of overweight children has quadrupled since 1970.
Roughly 8% of infants and toddlers are obese. Among 2- to 19-
year-olds 20% are obese and 33% are overweight (Ogden,
Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014).

Development of Obesity
Fat level, or adiposity, naturally changes across the lifespan.
There is an increase in adiposity from birth to about 1 year of age,
then a decrease. A rebound in adiposity sets in between 4 and 8
years of age, then decreases again. The body peaks in leanness
around age 25; after that age, adiposity increases again. Although
obesity can develop at any age, the primary grades are a risk
period because Of the adiposity rebound.
Individual Diversity in Obesity

What Does Obesity Predict?

Obesity can cause serious health problems in both children and
adults. In children, being overweight may cause type 2 (non—
insulin-dependent) diabetes. There has been a dramatic increase
in diabetes, which puts children at risk for hardening of the
arteries, kidney problems eye disease, and death.

Individual Diversity in Obesity

 Obesity is linked to achievement problems in school. It is
linked to poor working memory and lower reading, math, and
intelligence scores. Obese learners may score a full grade
lower on achievement tests than fit children.
 Obesity can also cause social and emotional problems.
Obese children are more lonely, depressed, and anxious
and have less self-control in the classroom (Gable, Krull, &
Chang, 2009; Harrist et al., 2016).

What predicts obesity?

Many factors are linked to obesity

Exercise- BMI is a direct function of calorie intake (diet) relative

to calorie output (exercise)—known as the energy equation. It
only takes a small imbalance in the equation to become
overweight. You learned earlier that many children today do not
get enough exercise
Diet- Many families, like the Donovans, eat out often and eat too
much. In the United States, portion sizes have increased,
particularly for soft drinks and salty snacks like crackers and chips
(Nielsen & Popkin, 2003). Portion sizes are especially large at
fast-food restaurants.

Sleep deprivation. Children who sleep fewer hours and go to

bed later tend to have higher BMI than other children (Snell et al.,
2007). Less than 10 hours of sleep per night is linked to obesity in
children in countries around the world, such as the United States,
China, Tunisia, and Brazil (Cappuccio et al., 2008). Sleep
deprivation begins early and can have lasting effects.

Television viewing. Television viewing reduces activity level and

promotes calorie intake, Many children watch TV during meals;
this habit is linked to eating fewer fruits and vegetables and eating
more pizza, salty snacks, and soda pop (Coon, Goldberg, Rogers,
& Tucker, 2001).

Parent behavior. Parents influence their children's obesity in

many ways, such as being obese themselves, skipping family
mealtime, being negative during mealtime, or being highly
controlling about eating (e.g., "No soda at any time") so that their
children overeat the wrong foods when the controls are lifted
(Harrison et al., 2011).
Group Diversity in Obesity

Obesity rates vary by ethnicity and SES in the United States,

although ethnic differences in excessive BMI are small. Asian
children have the lowest rate and Latino and African American
children have the highest rates (Ogden et al., 2014). In most
countries, higher-SES children are taller and heavier than low-
SES children.
It may seem ironic that low-SES children who are more likely to
have food insecurity would be obese, but in the United States,
high-calorie food is plentiful and cheap. For example, a box of
cookies provides more calories per dollar than fresh fruit. Children
living in poverty are more likely than high-SES children to eat
cookies rather than fruit, although most nonpoor children do not
have stellar diets either (DHHS, 2015). 322