Research Paper about The Problem of Obesity and Overweight

📌Category: Health, Health Care, Human Body, Obesity
📌Words: 743
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 01 February 2022

Based on recent studies, one third of children and adolescents in the United States will develop type II diabetes in their lifetime. Almost two thirds of adults in the United States are considered overweight or obese. Since the 1990s, obesity across the United States has been a growing concern. With the effects of being overweight or obese negatively impacting physical, psychological, and functional health, it is beneficial to reduce the population percentage of overweight and obese individuals. Obesity increases an individual’s predisposition to other chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM) and high blood pressure (HTN). The increasing rates of obesity can be associated with environmental influences like the lack of physical activity and exercise. 

To classify an individual as overweight or obese, their body mass index (BMI) needs to be calculated. A BMI is “a ratio of weight, in kilograms to squared height in meters. Adults and children or adolescents have different classifications for overweight and obese. For adults, you are considered overweight if your BMI is between 25 and 29.9. If you are obese your BMI is over 30. Grade 1 obese is a BMI score between 30 and 34.9, grade 2 obesity is a BMI number between 35 and 39.9, and grade 3 obesity is a BMI number 40 and above. For children and adolescents to be overweight they must have a BMI that is over 85% on the BMI reference curve. To be considered obese they need to have a BMI over 95% on the BMI reference curve. 

As mentioned earlier, a third of children and two thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. Some research suggests that eight percent of adults have type two diabetes (DM2), three percent have undiagnosed DM2, and 37 percent of the population is prediabetic. Those of ethnic minorities or who are below 130 percent of the poverty line may see higher obesity prevalence within their communities and may also experience negative impacts of obesity in financial, employment, and academic settings. 

Obesity is associated with large financial costs. Some direct costs of obesity are preventive treatments and tests, and treatment for when someone gets the disease. Additionally, there are indirect costs that are based on the mortality and morbidity of obesity. In 2005, the estimated annual costs of obesity-related illnesses from 2000-2005 was roughly 190 billion dollars, not adjusting for current inflation. Specifically, childhood and adolescent obesity required over 14 billion dollars in expenditure from direct medical costs. As more individuals are being diagnosed with obesity, and consequently other potential chronic diseases like DM2 and HTN, the financial cost from obesity is only expected to rise. 

In addition to heavy financial costs for obesity, there is significant personal costs associated with being overweight or obese. Obesity has high association with disability and major causes of death (cardiovascular diseases, DM, HTN, myocardial infarctions, etc.) in addition to psychological impacts that can negatively impact quality of life for an individual. Some studies have suggested that there is reduced brain structure integrity in children and adults that are obese. Children and adolescence have many costs from being overweight or obese. Some reports suggests that poor quality of life is 5.5 times greater in children who are overweight or obese when compared to children of the same age with normal weight. Obesity has typically had a direct correlation with children missing school, which can impose many problems academically and socially. There is potential for the generation of children having increased rates of obesity to have shorter lifespans than those of their parent’s generation. These, in addition to many other human costs, should be considered when working towards implementing change in and individual’s life.

There is not a sole thing that causes someone to become overweight or obese. Similarly, there are multiple lifestyle changes that should be made to lose weight if someone is working towards losing weight. This research will specifically be looking at exercise and its relationship with obesity, however it is important to remember that there are many factors that influence a person’s weight and health. Today, more people live a sedentary life which heavily reduces the amount of physical activity or exercise one does. Even when leisure time is said to increase, physical activities levels are not often met; many times, individuals will say there is a lack of time to engage in various physical activity. When people have environments where exercise is lower and potential for overeating is high, educating them about different motivations to change their habits can be beneficial. 

With the prevalence and impact obesity has on society in the United States, solutions to aid in lowering the overweight and obese percentages should be a goal that remains to be a priority for health professionals. With that in mind, the purpose of this research was to explore the relationship of exercise to overweight and obesity among young adults.

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