Application of Epidemiology to Obesity

Application of Epidemiology to Obesity

Introduction

One of the major health problems faced by most of the developed countries today is obesity. It is a growing threat to most, especially in countries like US. US ranked first when talking about obesity and the prevalence of risks associated with it. In US obesity has now become a major health concern covering all the age groups. When examining the causes of the increase in rate of obesity in certain areas including US, it is observed that the factors that contribute to this growing universal problem are also different changing with geographical location and other demographics. Obesity is caused mainly due to laziness, which means people eat more calories and the burn out or the activity is less. Of the many factors contributing to obesity some include, surroundings, metabolism and also the genes (Nguyen, 2010).

Discussion

Obesity affects differently to people, for instance its effects will be different in adults than in children. The contributing factors and the side effects in males are not comparable to those which appear in women. In the US the 2009-2010 stats shows that 35.7% of the adults comprising one-third of the adults are obese (CDC, 2012). They also observed an increasing rate of obesity in children, in recent years the occurrence of obesity in children between ages 2 to 5 has almost doubled and tripled in children between ages 6 to 11 (CDC, 2012). This marks a great threat to the health of these children because obesity can cause various health problems such as heart diseases and cancer, even for a lifetime. This indicates there is an urgent need to control obesity in these areas.

However, after examining the statistics it has been observed that for 1999 to 2008 the rate of obesity among children in U.S did not increase much. Through the observations made by some of the professionals it has been identified that if the rates of obesity will continue to increase like this, after some years majority of the states could have rates above 50%, which is appalling (Wang, 2007).

Obesity is the problem of the entire population, and people are facing this problem because they are half-starved and eat food that is cheap or which can be easily available to them. This means they have an unhealthy diet making them obese. When taking racism into consideration, it is observed that women especially black women are more obese (twice) than white women. It is also observed that the rates of obesity are higher in Hispanic men than in black and white men. Some people, in these countries have a luxurious lifestyle, means that they have enough money and a healthy way of livelihood. By studying the data, it is identified that married men are more obese than unmarried men, it is also examined that obesity continues to be a growing threat in the U.S as well as different other parts of the world (Wang, 2007).

As obesity is increasing at a high rate in the ...