Community Nursing: Obesity or Overweight children in Palm Beach County



Community Nursing: Obesity or Overweight children in Palm Beach County

Introduction

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems, which is leading to death of many individuals in America. This report is on Obesity and overweight trait of children in Palam Beach County in the state of Florida, United States of America (USA).

Obesity in adults is defined by a body mass index of 30 or higher. The studies found that obesity rates worldwide have doubled in the last 30 years, even as blood pressure and cholesterol levels have decreased. About 5% of men and 8% of women worldwide were obese in 1980, compared with about 10% of men and 14% of women in 2008. Researchers also expect that obesity will cost the U.S. an extra 2.6% in health care expenses, or about $66 billion annually. The researchers argue that the global obesity problem will continue to progress unless governments, international agencies and other institutions intervene. One report found that changes in food production and marketing over the last century have created an obesity promoting environment, in which efforts to maintain a healthy weight are largely impossible. They suggest changing the way foods are marketed, making healthful foods less costly and less-healthful foods more costly through increased taxes (Epstein & Squires, 1988).

Cover Sheet

Palm Beach County

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Obesity and Overweight Children in Palm Beach County

HGT Community Health Practicum

Western Governors University

Assessment

The fieldwork for this report is performed on Palm Beach County in the Florida state, United States of America (USA).

Community Description

The Palm Beach County is a county in the state of Florida in the United States of America. The administrative headquarters (County Seat) is West Palm Beach that has over 105,000 inhabitants. The county is the third most populous in Florida. On a national level rankings for the most populous county, it is ranked 29th. The county has an area of ??6,181 square kilometers, of which 1,068 square miles is water area. The water surface is mainly composed of the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Okeechobee. The percentage of the total water area is 17.27 percent. The county is bordered clockwise to the counties: Broward County, Hendry County and Martin County. According to the 2010 U.S census bureau the approximate population of Palm Beach County was 1,320,134. The percentage of persons under 5 years of age is 5.4%. Individuals less than 18 years of age are 20.4% of the total population, and people of age 65 years and above cover 21.6% of the total population. The numbers of people belonging to each gender are almost equal in the Palm Beach County, but the females are slightly more in number as they cover 51.6% of the total population (Barlow &Dietz, 1998).

The classification of population on the basis of ethnicity shows that 73.5% of the population is white people, ...