Obesity: Public Health. Paper Example.

According to Mokdad et al. (2003), obesity has often been linked to health risks and poor dietary behaviors. The risks as listed by Pi-Sunyer et al. (1998) include diabetes, heart disease, and different forms of asthma, cancer, arthritis, and generally poor health conditions. Cawley & Meyerhoefer (2012) measured the health costs of obesity and stated that they could be estimated to significantly higher when compared to non-obese persons. This is an essential concern for public health since the approximated overweight prevalence (BMI 25.0 kg/m2) in America is almost at 70 percent with obesity prevalence (BMI25.0 kg/m2) at 35 percent (Flegal et al., 2012). While various authors have proposed that obesity prevalence in children and adolescents has been steady over the years without a considerable increase, it is still approximated that almost 17 percent of children are obese (Wang & Brown, 2011).

As a result, it is important that an effective intervention should not only be developed but also implemented for the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity (Slack et al., 2014). Brennan et al., (2010) notes that even though medical approaches to obesity treatment are such as surgical alternatives and possible pharmacy co-therapy, the foundation of obesity treatment and prevention lies in the lifestyles approaches which minimize energy intake, e.g., dietary approaches, as well as increase expenditure on energy, e.g., physical activities (Kumanyika & Obarzanek, 2003). Of particular significance is the responsibility related to physical activities in treating obesity, as well as the subsequent impact of physical activity on health-related outcomes. It is essential for healthcare practitioners to take into consideration the influences of physical activities on the regulation of body weight (Gorber et al., 2007), as well as a concise insight to the dose of physical practices which can effectively help in managing body weight (Smedley & Syme, 2001).

References

Brennan, S. F., Cantwell, M. M., Cardwell, C. R., Velentzis, L. S., & Woodside, J. V. (2010). Dietary patterns and breast cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 91(5), 1294-1302.

Cawley, J., & Meyerhoefer, C. (2012). The medical care costs of obesity: an instrumental variables approach. Journal of health economics, 31(1), 219-230.

Flegal, K. M., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Ogden, C. L. (2012). Prevalence of obesity and trends in the distribution of body mass index among US adults, 1999-2010. Jama, 307(5), 491-497.

Gorber, S. C., Tremblay, M., Moher, D., & Gorber, B. (2007). A comparison of direct vs. selfreport measures for assessing height, weight and body mass index: a systematic review. Obesity reviews, 8(4), 307-326.

Kumanyika, S. K., & Obarzanek, E. (2003). Pathways to obesity prevention: report of a National Institutes of Health workshop. Obesity, 11(10), 1263-1274.

Mokdad, A. H., Ford, E. S., Bowman, B. A., Dietz, W. H., Vinicor, F., Bales, V. S., & Marks, J. S. (2003). Prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and obesity-related health risk factors, 2001. Jama, 289(1), 76-79.

Pi-Sunyer, F. X., Becker, D. M., Bouchard, C., Carleton, R. A., Colditz, G. A., Dietz, W. H., ... & Higgins, M. (1998). Clinical guidelines on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of overweight and obesity in adults. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 68(4), 899-917.

Slack, T., Myers, C. A., Martin, C. K., & Heymsfield, S. B. (2014). The geographic concentration of US adult obesity prevalence and associated social, economic, and environmental factors. Obesity, 22(3), 868-874.

Smedley, B. D., & Syme, S. L. (Eds.). (2001). Promoting health: Intervention strategies from social and behavioral research. American Journal of Health Promotion, 15(3), 149-166.

Wang, Y. C., McPherson, K., Marsh, T., Gortmaker, S. L., & Brown, M. (2011). Health and economic burden of the projected obesity trends in the USA and the UK. The Lancet, 378(9793), 815-825.