Active Living and Healthy Eating
One’s growth is adversely affected by the lifestyles both in the urban and rural areas. The current generation has made it impossible to provide all social amenities that are needed for proper growth. In urban areas, this has mostly affected children and teenagers. Medical facilities, playgrounds, or gym facilities have become limited, which is a result of overpopulation. Poverty and diseases such as obesity are more pronounced with a high prevalence rate globally. According to a 2017 survey conducted by the CDC at the beginning of the year, the age-estimates of obesity among adults are 36.5% while for children being 18.5%. As a result, there is need for alternative means to address these concerns while pointing towards the right approach to be considered for addressing these concerns among the population. This paper addresses the ways through which these risks have negatively affected the population and the short and long-term outcomes of these concerns.
Healthcare professionals have a big task in addressing social and economic problems that continue to affect the society. Obesity is one of the healthcare concerns that are affecting the population to a larger extent. Obesity is defined as excessive accumulation of fats in the body that in the long-term impair the health status of an individual (Furukawa et al., 2017). The increased fatty foods intake and lack of physical activity leads to the accumulation of fats rather than digestion to produce starch.
Similarly, poverty is also a concern in the current community. Poverty is a leading cause for poor hygiene, diet, and clothing, which increases the exposure of an individual to health issues (Barnes, (2017). Poverty adversely affects the living conditions of people making it easier to develop complications and illnesses due to the inability of the body to get the necessary resources needed for defense, functionality, and development.
Obesity affects people from the age of 5 and above. The outcomes of the disease are felt by the community as a whole. The expense of treatment along with the emotional and psychological impact affects the people who are closely related to the patient. In the current generation, the lack of physical activity among children increases the rate of obesity. In addition, uneven work schedules for parents increase the possibility of children eating junk food as they are left unmonitored. Among adults, poor diets are a major contributor to an increased rate of diagnosis. In general, the factors leading to an increase in obesity among children include poor diets, poverty, lack of parental supervision of the foods children are eating, and lack of physical exercise on a regular basis. Obesity leads to poor health for patients leading to lack of physical activity and normal lifestyles among the affected (Fogelholm, 2010). In the long-term, the government and the healthcare department will face a major economic strain in providing the community with optimal care.
The increasing poverty gap in the community has affected the distribution of national resources. As a result, the poor regions lack playgrounds making it hard for people to be involved in physical activities. Diabetes affects people’s ability to support their families, as well as involvement in developmental programs and activities in the community leading to poor development. The lack of an equitable resource distribution strategy leaves some families in the community with varying needs, which affects their ability to remain financially and physically stable. In the short-term, there is the risk of a big gap that separates the rich from the poor leading to slow development. At the same time, from an early age, children are unable to attend school or live a normal life as their age mates since they will be under medication or in severe conditions dialysis. Short-term effects of poverty include lack of an effective diet and living conditions.
Lack of effective measures of managing obesity among children poses a huge health concern in the long-term. Long-term effect of obesity leads to the development of complications such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and even diabetes. In the healthcare sector, this would mean increased expenses in treating and managing these diseases among patients. On the other hand, the community will also have to spend more financially and emotionally in taking care of their family members who are diagnosed with these diseases.
References
Barnes, C. (2017). Mediating good food and moments of possibility with Jamie Oliver: Problematising celebrity chefs as talking labels. Geoforum, 84, 169-178.
Fogelholm, M. (2010). Physical activity, fitness and fatness: relations to mortality, morbidity and disease risk factors. A systematic review. Obesity reviews, 11(3), 202-221.
Furukawa, S., Fujita, T., Shimabukuro, M., Iwaki, M., Yamada, Y., Nakajima, Y., et al. (2017). Increased oxidative stress in obesity and its impact on metabolic syndrome. The Journal of clinical investigation, 114(12), 1752-1761.