PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Personal & Professional Development

Personal & Professional Development

Obesity in Children

Definition

Obesity in children is a severe medical illness that hampers their growth. When a child is above his normal weight according to his age, he is affected by childhood obesity. Early pounds gained in the beginning stage of obesity would expose the children to major health conditions in their later years like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. There is a high prevalence of low self esteem and depression in children rich in Obesetic disorder (Mayo Clinic, 2013).

Statistics of Child Obesity in United Kingdom

There has been a massive increase in hildhood obesity in UK. Following are the statistics discovered:

The year 2009 saw an increase in the childhood obesity. In 2009, every 3 of 10 boys have been affected by childhood obesity. Whereas, girls aged 2 to 15 were also classified as overweight.

There was 31% rate of obesity in boys whereas 28% obesity was prevalent in girls.

16% of boys aged 2 to 15 were affected by obesity. Whereas, 15% of girls were classified as obese. There have been remarkable increase in the rate of obesetic disorders since 1995. Although the percentage of childhood obesity has increased in UK, the prevalence of obesity in children aged 2 to 15 has largely been unchanged.

Students in Reception classes have also been contributing to the rise of Obesity in children. Every one in ten pupils of Reception class in the age bracket of 4-5 years were being obese. Their percentage amounted to 9.8 % in 2009. It has been observed that boys have more chances of being obese than girls. As the pupils advance to greater years, the percentage of obesity increases rapidly. As students advance from years 4 and 5, there is a gradual rise in the percentage of obese children (Eastwood, 2011).

Strategies used by UK for countering Childhood Obesity

The history of UK is rich with strategic measures employed by UK government in tackling the menace of Obesity. Firstly in 2008, the policy makers implemented a cross government strategy by the name of 'Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives'.

It was aimed at combating obesity and supporting people in maintaining a ahealthy weight. It was addressed in the context of many areas. First of all, it had a goal of successfully fostering healthy growth and development of children.

The programme was inclined to incorporate healthy food choices which would enable a healthy lifestyle for children. People were attracted towards incentives if they maintained a healthy lifestyle. Additionally, personalized advice and support was provided to obese people. One key area of this programme was to build physical activity that would reduce the effect of obesity in people. It has been observed that people are affected by Obesity because there is a lack of physical activity in their lives.

This programme yielded fruitful results and Obesity in children was decreasing. It is due to this comprehensive strategy that the childhood obesity got decreased to a great ...