Correlation Between Poverty and Obesity

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Obesity in the UK
Obesity in the US
Is There Any Correlation Between Poverty and Obesity?
Conclusion
List of References

Introduction

Over the last few years, there has been a concern about the rising cases of obesity in the United Kingdom (UK). It is worrying that obesity may soon become an epidemic in the country. In the UK and other Western nations, the poor are now, for the first time in history, proportionately the most obese in the population groups.

There is the need to address this concern because as opposed to the usual perception that obesity varies by gender, age, and income among other factors, economic deprivation is now believed to be causing the disease. The changing lifestyles that link obesity to income seem to be on the rise.

The present discussion is complicated because of the fact that there are other several factors that might cause obesity, which is unrelated to poverty levels. However, latest research on the intricate links between obesity and poverty in the United States (US) shows uniformity for women and children from low socio-economic status (SES).

This paper discusses the correlation between obesity and poverty in the UK but also refers to situation in the US. Although the title suggests a link between poverty and obesity, it has not been proved and this essay is an attempt to examine many factors that contribute to impacts of poverty.

The present research seeks to achieve this through assessing the suggestion that today in the Western nations; the poor are now, for the first time in history, proportionately the most obese in the population groups. The paper will also attempt to establish whether there is a correlation between obesity and poverty as well as provide a summary of the crucial issues identified in the discussion.

Obesity in the UK

It is notable that the proportion of the UK population with obesity has escalated significantly between 1993 and 2009. The increase has been 13 percent for males in 1993 to 22 percent in 2009. Conversely, the population proportion for females has escalated from 16 percent in 1993 to 24 percent in 2009 (The Poverty Site, 2011).

Furthermore, 22 percent of the working population presently has obesity. This percentage is significantly higher when compared with the case in 1993 when only 14 percent of the working population lived with obesity (The Poverty Site 2011). It is also notable that both men and women have similar chances of developing obesity.

It is important to point out that there is no apparent correlation between obesity and income. This is because the population groups with the lowest incidences of obesity include poor males and rich females. Furthermore, there is no clear correlation between fatness and social class (The Poverty Site, 2011). There is a general feeling among experts that the obesity problem in the country is not worse and the trend may be flattening out.

Obesity in the US

The obesity problem in the US is significantly different from the situation in the UK. America apparently has the highest obesity rates. This is because one – third proportion of the population has obesity. In addition, another one – third of the population is overweight (Levine, 2011).

As opposed to the situation in the UK, obesity problem in the US is likely to worsen. Child obesity is also a major predicament in the US There are some environmental influences, which influence obesity.

Is There Any Correlation Between Poverty and Obesity?

There is a consensus that varying household’s socio-economic level influences differing obesity incident levels. This is because the socio-economic levels that determine food security, defined by Zizza, Duffy and Gerrior (2008) as “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways” is fluctuating significantly.

Notably, obesity incidences among women escalate with increasing levels of poverty (Levine, 2011). However, the level of poverty among men causes diverse obesity incidences, which form according to the varying occupations held. It is apparent that high poverty levels among women escalate their chances of developing obesity (Levine, 2011).

There is a considerable correlation between food deficiency and obesity for males and females in Britain. The correlation is observable when the prevalence levels for obesity are studied across economically deprived populations. It is notable that fatness prevalence levels escalate or stagnates at similar rates when compared against deprivation (Levine, 2011).

In England, 30 percent of females and 25 percent of males described as the most economically poor in the society are obese. The figures changes to 19 percent for females and 22 percent for males among wealthy people. Notably, the changes in the figures do not show large differences pertaining to the strength of the correlation between obesity and economic deprivation (Department of Health, 2011).

Arguing that economic deprivation causes obesity becomes more confusing when studying the same across the population of children. The boys who have the lowest chances of developing obesity are slightly the poor ones (Department of Health, 2011). The trend changes slightly among girls because those who develop obesity are within the median income levels (Levine, 2011). Generally, children from economically deprived households frequently experience challenges with nutrition. This has undesirable influence on the youngsters’ mental health and well-being, which in the long-term may become a contributing factor to obesity.

Lobstein, Baur and Uauy (2004), also support this concern by arguing that in the industrialized nations such as the UK and the US youngsters in economically deprived groups are at utmost danger of developing obesity. It is notable that introducing overweight into the analysis process complicates the understanding on the relationship.

In Britain, people have continued adding weight while their food purchase rates have been declining over the decades. Therefore, it can be said that the changing lifestyle and eating behaviors may be causing obesity. This also has a link with the peoples’ engagement with physical activities (Franklin, Jones, Love et al., 2012).

It indicates that people are engaging in less physical activity sessions because of the changes brought about by globalization and technological advancement. These developments make people to enjoy sedentary life in the high and low-income households (Lobstein, Baur and Uauy, 2004).

There are studies linking sedentary lifestyles such as working with the technological materials, including playing video games and watching television for several hours to obesity. Therefore, while discussing the correlation between economic deprivation and obesity there is the need to study the sedentary lifestyles adopted by people in high and low-income areas (Zizza, Duffy and Gerrior, 2008).

The nutritional value of the food that people consume has a significant impact on obesity development. This is particularly in reference to the amount of fat and its nutritional value in the food consumed. The income earned by households influences their food intake. It is noteworthy that the differences in food consumption reveal no major gaps under varying income groups (Franklin et al., 2012).

For example, looking at two different scenarios involving an individual from the least economically sustainable household and another one from the richest household, their calories consumption does not show major differences Franklin et al., 2012).

However, the people who are not very poor and not very rich may consume more calories than the poorest mad richest individuals may. This indicates that there is a weak correlation between economic deprivation and obesity (Lobstein, Baur and Uauy, 2004). Furthermore, this brings up additional concerns such as changing lifestyles that makes people to avoid engaging in physical activities.

The claim for the changing lifestyle is strengthened by the notion that readily processed high-calorie foodstuffs are cheaper for the low-income earners (Levine, 2011).

It is notable that even supermarkets located in the neighborhoods of economically deprived individuals normally stock more unhealthy foods. Therefore, the economically deprived households will prefer the cheaper and unhealthy foods, which are high in calorie, thereby increasing their chances for developing obesity (Lobstein, Baur and Uauy, 2004).

In the US, the issues may be similar as pointed out by Levine (2011). A study conducted by Levine (2011) to establish the link between “poverty and obesity in the US” generated helpful findings. The study raised the issue that Americans living in the poorest neighborhoods were more likely to develop obesity (Kaiser, Smith and Allison, 2012).

The study indicates that people living in low-income areas are underprivileged in terms of access to food. Furthermore, the economically deprived individuals lack access to clean and fresh foodstuff. They also have challenges of accessing sufficient food (Cassell & Gleaves, 2006).

The relationship with the obesity emerges from the fact that the economically deprived household’s lives in hunger and cannon easily access reasonably cheaper and healthier foodstuff (Kaiser, Smith and Allison, 2012). In this case, hunger together with poor accessibility to healthy food, cannot be the only factors that affect obesity.

The study concluded that much as economic deprivation is thought to have links with obesity, it is important to study the level of sedentariness of the poor people (Lobstein, Baur and Uauy, 2004). This is because the study also noted that the most economically deprived individuals also had the highest levels of sedentariness.

The economically deprived in the population may have sedentary lifestyles because of different reasons. The poor people living in low-income neighborhoods may fear to engage in physical activities outdoors because of the high crime rates (Kaiser, Smith and Allison, 2012). In addition, the economically deprived people may not have access to parks and sports venues (Kaiser, Smith and Allison, 2012).

This is because the relevant institutions sometimes fail to provide the facilities in such areas. The notion that engaging in physical activities requires certain sportswear may also hinder the economically deprived people from taking part in the physical activities since they cannot afford the appropriate sportswear (Levine, 2011).

A study by Drewnowski (2009), affirmed that obesity and economic deprivation are linked. The author argued that incidences of obesity followed economic status gradient. He noted that the highest rates of obesity were observable among the poor in the US.

He also pointed out the fact that the UK Department of Health (2011) reported that in the low economic status populations, more women than men developed obesity. The author also indicates that environmentally low-income neighborhoods had the highest incidences of obesity (Drewnowski, 2009). The author concludes that obesity and food uncertainty showed a relationship.

With the ongoing discussions, what remains unfamiliar is whether reversing economic deprivation situation among the poor populations would also overturn sedentary lifestyles. However, unclear the relationship between economic deprivation and obesity remain it would be too expensive to disregard the possible links (Levine, 2011). This paper reflects on the statement that in the Western nations the poor are now, for the first time in history, proportionately the most obese in the population groups and affirms that it is considerably true (Drewnowski, 2009).

Conclusion

In summary, this paper has established that there is a considerable correlation between economic deprivation and obesity in both the UK and the US. The paper has also established that two aspects of economic deprivation among the poor people lead to obesity. The individual household low economic status and environmentally the poor neighborhoods have links with obesity.

The economically deprived households and individuals lack access to nutritionally adequate and healthy foodstuffs. Therefore, they rely on cheaper, readily packed foods, which are high in calorie. The paper also identified that both the UK and the US have different levels of obesity. Whereas obesity problems are beginning in the UK, one-third of the American population already suffers obesity while another one third is overweight.

This paper has also made considerable discussion regarding the role of sedentary lifestyle among the rich and the economically deprived. Throughout the discussions, it emerged, that poverty alone may not cause obesity among the economically deprived populations. The paper concludes by affirming that there is a considerable correlation between obesity and economic deprivation.

List of References

Cassell, D. K., & Gleaves, D. H. 2006, The encyclopedia of obesity and eating disorders, Facts on File, New York.

Department of Health 2011, Equality Analysis: A call to action on obesity in England. Web.

Drewnowski, A. 2009, “Obesity, diets, and social inequalities”, Nutrition Reviews, Vol. 67, pp. 36–39, Willey Online Library. Web.

Franklin, B., Jones, A., Love, D., Puckett, S., Macklin, J., and White – Means, S. 2012, “Exploring Mediators of Food Insecurity and Obesity: A Review of Recent Literature”, Journal of Community Health, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 253 – 264, National Institute of Health. Web.

Kaiser, K. A., Smith, D. L., and Allison, D. B. 2012, “Conjectures on some curious connections among social status, calorie restriction, hunger, fatness, and longevity”, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1264, pp. 1–12, Willey Online Library. Web.

Levine, J. 2011, “Poverty and Obesity in the US”, Diabetes, Vol. 60, No. 11, pp. 2667-2668. Web.

Lobstein, T., Baur, L., and Uauy, R 2004, “Obesity in children and young people: a crisis in public health”, Obesity Reviews, Vol. 5, pp. 4–85, Willey Online Library. Web.

The Poverty Site. 2011, Obesity. Web.

Zizza, C. A., Duffy, P. A., and Gerrior, S. A 2008,” Food Insecurity Is not Associated With Lower Energy Intakes” Obesity, Vol. 16, pp. 1908–1913, Willey Online Library. Web.

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