The Problem of Childhood Obesity in New York City

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Table of Contents

Literature review
Background to the problem
Statement of the Problem
References

Literature review

Gastroenterological diseases are a group of diseases related to digestive tract disorders and related systems. Often diseases are divided into those caused internally and externally, although clinicians believe there are no diseases utterly independent of the environment. Various diseases require surgical intervention (e.g., cholecystectomy), pharmacological (enteritis or colitis), and prophylactic (gastritis). Diseases of the digestive system are the most difficult because they affect the nervous system, which depends mainly on normal digestion. Particular attention is paid to nutritiology – the science of nutrition, which deals with the interaction of all systems to create a harmonious functioning of the body. A special place among gastroenterological diseases is occupied by obesity, which is associated with a violation of the ratio of weight to the person’s height.

The problem of obesity is becoming more and more pressing every year, and there are many reasons for this, not always related to nutrition. Overweight and its complications are found in adults and children, and the number of cases increases each year (Kansra et al., 2021). According to recent data, one in ten children in European countries is overweight, and one in five in the U.S. (Romanelli et al., 2020). How can the problem be recognized and treated early, and can childhood obesity be prevented? More than one billion people are overweight, 30 million children and adolescents in the European region are overweight, and 15 million are obese (Sanyaolu et al., 2019). Obesity is increasingly common in young children; WHO estimates that current trends could cause 70 million children under age 5 to be obese by 2025.

Although children have fewer obesity-related health problems than adults, there is a risk that the issue of being overweight will persist and worsen as they age. Very often, with obesity comes a growing risk of developing chronic heart disease and diabetes later. Overweight children are more prone to stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem. It has been found that 100% of children with varying degrees of obesity have low serum vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is essential for bone growth by regulating calcium concentration in the body. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with poor bone health and, in severe cases, with hypocalcemia, rickets, and osteomalacia (decreased bone strength). The leading causes of obesity in children are genetic factors, lack of physical activity, and eating disorders.

Obesity is characterized by excessive adipose tissue accumulation, usually due to excessive food intake and/or low energy expenditure. Obesity can be caused by genetics, psychological, lifestyle, diet, environment, and hormonal factors (Kansra et al., 2021). Obesity involves a biological defense of increased body fat mass, which can be explained by interactions between brain reward and homeostatic circuits, inflammatory signaling, and the accumulation of lipid metabolites.

Smoking is one of the high risks of death in the U.S., but obesity and being overweight are now also increased risks. Impaired immune function, increased lipid load on all organ systems, and destabilization of the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems are serious concerns. Moreover, the above are aggravating factors in COVID-19 (Tingley, 2021). The frequency of hospitalization increases proportionally with the number of obese individuals in hospitals. In addition, differences in ethnicity cause additional concern in the health care system and require special treatment. For Hispanic and non-Hispanic blacks, obesity is one of the triggers for severe complications of coronavirus: both adults and children are affected.

The problem of obesity among children is a subject of the political arena of health care, which decides budget allocation and implementation questions. Against the backdrop of the epidemic, health problems have become even more acute, so politics contributes to both improving and worsening the situation (Sanyaolu et al., 2019). Against this background, the introduction of prevention on the part of politics seems to be the best and most appropriate option to engage. It may seem that politics has no place in health care, but it is often, especially with the involvement of lobby groups, that can be the leading source of solutions. In particular, children’s foundations, politicians’ sponsorship of specific pharmaceutical research, physical therapy, and physical therapy facilities have addressed childhood obesity. Money and the amount that politicians are willing to donate to the problem are of great importance, as has already been mentioned.

Preventive interventions are implemented everywhere in the United States, with many states operating their obesity support centers. In addition, there is a state program that must be implemented in all states. It includes physical education time requirements in elementary and secondary schools, snack and rest breaks, and safe transportation and walking routes. The adopted state standards include provisions for how and how much physical education classes are implemented and the regulated number of program hours (State politics to prevent obesity). All schools have implemented nutrition standards since 2017, and more than half have implemented farm-to-table nutrition programs (Elbel et al., 2020). Healthy eating funding initiatives have been implemented in many states, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and several central and western American states. Local policy programs for healthy eating have been implemented in almost all states and allow programs to be adjusted to meet the region’s needs.

The CDC funds many programs: notable among them are the state obesity program (in 28 states), Strategic Health Alliance (SAH) communities, and local state departments. State mechanisms are most often used to influence political campaigns on state health, but SAH is also common. These communities are based on promoting health from within because the founders believe that health begins with mental stability and awareness of the problem (State politics to prevent obesity). In addition, external influences are explored as much: SAHs are interested in stabilizing the environment, which also influences obesity because of children (mainly through food and water).

Background to the problem

Why the Problem Was Chosen

Any health issue is always a societal problem, especially those considered social diseases. These include those that are closely related to opinions and unrest in society. They are influenced by the external environment and by a host of factors that are considered social: the number of cases, the spread, and the contagiousness. It may seem to have little to do with obesity, but social factors cannot be excluded in the case of childhood obesity.

The problem of childhood obesity affects every member of society who wants to make it favorable and comfortable. Obesity is a stigmatized disease around which numerous stereotypes have been created that prevents people from seeking medical help in time. It leads to even more alarming consequences associated with the progressive stages of obesity. The purpose of political activists, health activists and volunteers, ordinary citizens, and parents is to create conditions to prevent the disease while avoiding an intentional worsening of the situation (State politics to prevent obesity). The goal of prevention is to prevent the disease but to show that having it is not synonymous with being excluded from society.

This problem requires close attention because it can affect absolutely everyone. The choice of this problem for research is mainly due to the negative looming trend of obesity in New York and worldwide (Elbel et al., 2020). It means that new solutions are needed to find a solution, and to do so, it is necessary to study the issue at the city and even individual community level. Finding the political impact on health care and evaluating it goes a long way toward closely examining how to prevent childhood obesity by acting on the problem comprehensively.

Why the Problem Needs Urgent Actions

The problem of obesity is relevant for many reasons, but it is one of the most financially expensive, challenging to treat, and severe health problems. Obesity is a significant burden for various reasons, but first and foremost, it is one of the most financially expensive, challenging to treat, and severe health problems. The short- and long-term outlooks for obesity are bleak: it affects many economic areas of society. In addition, various therapeutic strategies, such as lifestyle adjustments, medication, and bariatric surgery, are of low effectiveness. Given these data, prevention seems more promising than cure, in contrast to the obesity epidemic.

Childhood obesity causes many problems, not only related to their overall physical condition but also their psychological strain. The relationship between obesity and other conditions makes it a public health problem for children and adolescents. The high prevalence of childhood obesity has launched a large body of research on its risk factors and triggers (Romanelli et al., 2020). Although the complete picture of all risk factors associated with obesity remains unclear, diet, exercise, physiological factors, and psychological factors play an essential role in controlling and preventing childhood obesity. All researchers agree that prevention is a crucial strategy to combat the current problem.

Obesity has a tremendous impact on both physical and psychological health. Consequently, it is associated with several comorbidities such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, sleep apnea, low self-esteem, and even severe forms of depression. Individuals with childhood obesity have risks of developing cardiovascular and digestive diseases related to the increased lipid load on these systems (Appel, 2019). Increased fat deposits also put children at increased risk for many forms of cancer, such as breast, colon, esophageal, kidney, and pancreatic cancers. All of these factors require society to pay more attention to the problem of childhood obesity and place an additional responsibility on the state to reduce the trend of the disease.

For a city as fast-growing as New York City, in which most adults have sedentary or sedentary lifestyles, the problem of obesity for themselves and their children is more relevant than anywhere else. The inadequate rise in childhood obesity in the face of the pandemic has once again demonstrated how misinterpreted the advertising and Internet sales of nutrition are. During the lockdown, most children did not have access to conventional healthy foods because of the way they were made and processed (Tingley, 2021). The conditions of the coronavirus infection prevented companies from efficiently supplying the fruits and vegetables that children need to grow and develop. Such conditions forced parents to stock up on non-perishable foods (mostly flour, pasta, and starchy products). In addition, all public health efforts were focused on COVID-19 prevention, making it difficult to support children who were overweight or starting to get hormonal problems.

Nowadays, the consequences of the pandemic and the unpreparedness of the health care system for such critical events are forcing research on childhood obesity. An unstable political situation regarding health care (e.g., cuts in work hours due to new standards, difficulty obtaining medical advice) is forcing people to seek medical care less frequently (Tingley, 2021). Since children themselves are the most energy- and resource-intensive population group, the costs are also high. Based on the reasons outlined above, one can say that state programs do not have time to be transformed to meet the new environmental conditions. All of this makes the problem of childhood obesity, which arises in fast-growing cities like New York City, more pressing.

Statement of the Problem

The problem statement

Is the lack of involvement of political groups in the health problem associated with childhood obesity one of the causes of its spread? What governments organizations/programs can help make a difference in this area?

Discussion of the Problem

As mentioned earlier, childhood obesity is a severe disease requiring preventive measures. The diagnosis of obesity itself is pretty simple because it involves primarily visual interpretation. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a low-cost method of estimating body fat and is available from an early age (from age 2). It uses a simple mathematical formula based on weight and height. Although more sophisticated techniques can directly measure fat deposits, they are expensive and unaffordable. These methods include caliper skin thickness measurement, bioelectric impedance, hydrodensitometry, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), and air displacement plethysmography.

Childhood obesity rates now appear to have leveled off and even decreased slightly in some age groups. Despite this, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports that obesity is a severe problem in New York City. In addition, their annual reports also note that children are at high risk (Martinez, 2020). Department reports also suggest that obese children are at even greater risk in adulthood: obesity is likely to continue for so long that it leads to serious health problems. In addition, the problem itself is that the rhythm of a big city like New York City does not imply increased physical activity because of the large number of buildings and structures. Urban growth is related to New York City as one of the more ethnically diverse areas. Non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics represent the ethnic groups in which children are more obese (Appel, 2019). It is probably due to gastronomic characteristics and genetic differences in indigestion, but there are no retrospective analyses on this topic yet.

New York City suffers from an epidemic of childhood obesity, despite many supportive prevention programs. About 15-19.4% of children are overweight, especially younger children: this is due to a lack of involvement in kindergarten nutrition standardization programs and abnormal load sharing in elementary school (Martinez, 2020). Officially, about 22-27% of children of all age groups are obese (Appel, 2019). It has already been linked to a lack of parental involvement, and a typical problem in ethnic American communities: eating foods significantly affects hormone levels. Some studies report that about one-third of children under age 7 are obese with concomitant hormonal problems (Kansra et al., 2021). Studies like these clearly show how the problem of childhood obesity is comprehensive and requires close attention and continuous monitoring.

References

Appel, D. (2019). Would making plain milk and water the default beverage options help to combat childhood obesity in New York city public schools?NYC Food Policy.

Elbel, B., Tamura, K., McDermott, Z. T., Wu, E., & Schwartz, A. E. (2020). Childhood obesity and the food environment: A population-based sample of public school children in New York City.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 28(1), 65–72.

Kansra, A. R., Lakkunarakah, S., & Jay, M. S. (2021). Childhood and adolescent obesity: A review. Frontiers in Pediatrics.

Martinez, F. (2020). The government: Fight against child obesity. In An ecological approach to obesity and eating disorders (Eds.). Pressbooks.

Romanelli, R., Cecchi, N., Carbone, M. G., Dinardo, M., Gaudino, G., del Giudice, E. M., & Umano, G. R. (2020). Pediatric obesity: Pevention is better than care.Italian Journal of Pediatrics, 46.

Sanyaolu, A., Okorie, C., Qi, X., Locke, J., & Rehman, S. (2019). Childhood and adolescent obesity in the United States: A public health concern.Global Pediatric Health, 6.

State politics to prevent obesity (n.d.). State of Childhood Obesity.

Tingley, K. (2021). The pandemic seems to have made childhood obesity worse, but there’s hope. The New York Times Magazine.

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