Childhood Obesity Case Study

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There are a number of health challenges facing our country, and childhood obesity is at the center of all of those challenges. Obesity is defined as having an excess of fat that is at or above the 95th percentile. It has slowly but steadily become a major public health issue in the United States because of the negative implications it has on our youth’s physical and mental well-being, as well as the overall welfare and health of our country. Because obesity is developing at younger and younger ages, it is important for our society to create programs and policies that allow us to implement prevention strategies that target school-aged children. Childhood obesity can be attributed to a number of different factors, with two of the main ones being poor nutrition and lack of exercise. We are living in a world where video games, computers, and television are our children’s main source of entertainment. With the focus on activities that do not involve…show more content…
In the U.S., children with obesity has more than doubled in the past 30 years, with an estimated 16.9% of children ages 2 to 19 being obese (Robinson, Geier, Rizzolo, & Sedrak, 2011). It is no longer a condition that only middle-aged adults have to deal with; it has become an all too common disease that more and more children are struggling with. Childhood obesity has both short-term and long-term consequences, as obese children become obese adults. Overall, obesity has a number of negative implications on a child’s physical, psychological, financial, emotional, and quality-of-life over their lifetime. In children and adults obesity is correlated with an increased risk of death from all causes, and individuals with chronic illnesses are at an increased risk for mortality and increased morbidity resulting from
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