Childhood Obesity Case

Name:Teh Ching Whern

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. Obesity is the most common nutritional problem among children in developed countries. The prevalence of obesity has been growing at an alarming rate for decades in both children and adults. Obesity prevalence is 14–20% in industrialised countries, but the fastest increases, especially in childhood obesity, are seen in developing countries such as Chile and China .Worldwide, 22 million children under the age of five are overweight . A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of his or her height (in metres). A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with  BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight.

Childhood obesity affects one in seven children in Malaysia, according to current statistics from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) carried out in 2006 and 2011. The survey reported an alarming rising trend from one-in-19 in 2006 to the current status. The Malaysian figures are not very far away from the United States, where one in five of the  children are overweight or obese.

There are many  factors that contribute to  childhood obesity,such as effect of television viewing,fast food and soft drink consumption,home factors,school factors ,etc. 

Watching television can decrease the amount of time spent performing physical activities and has also been associated with increased food consumption either during viewing or as a result of food advertisements. According to the report, children are spending more time in front of the television, watching television and playing computer games, instead of doing any other activities besides sleeping. Increase in dietary energy intake combined with decreased energy expenditure contributes to weight gain.

Fast food consumption is another leading suspect in the childhood obesity epidemic. Fast food normally includes all of the things that nutritionists warn against: ‘saturated and transfats’, high glysaemic index, high energy density, and huge portion sizes. A massive fast food meal can contain about 2 200 calories, which at a burn rate of 85 to 100 calories per mile would require something near a full marathon to expend.

There are several potential mechanisms through which children’s eating patterns and level of physical activity may be affected by having parents who are busying work outside the home. Child care providers may be more probably than parents to offer children food that is highly caloric and of poor nutritional value, possibly because they are more concerned with placating their wards than with their long term health. Furthermore, parents who work outside the home may serve more high calorie prepared or fast foods because of time limitation. Additionally, unsupervised children may make poor nutritional choices when preparing their own snacks.