Obesity in the US is a national plague rather than an individual health problem. Different healthcare stakeholders including the government, healthcare professionals, dieting personnel have reported increasing and worrying levels of obesity in the USA. As a result, various health agencies have sworn to help in the fight against the health problem on its various levels. It is predicted that by 2030, almost a third of the American population will be obese. As a health epidemic, obesity in the United States has undoubtedly run out of practitioner’s control with a potential of bankrupting critical health services. In averting potential damage to the future generation through obesity, it is imperative that different healthcare stakeholders take a united front in fighting against this endemic.
Obesity-related illnesses have become prevalent in the United States healthcare crisis. The disease was first reported in the late 1970s when the prevalence of the disease rapidly augmented among children and adults. The increased and rapid changes were mostly attributed to the various diversifications in food and beverages supply as well as physical activities. The American populace is recorded to have reduced its active participation in physical activities since the late 1970s. For example, instead of walking over short distances, the population purchased vehicles that would transport them to their intended locations with ease. Consumption of foods and beverages with high-energy densities including junk foods replaced the health foods that the population previously consumed enhancing the epidemic impacts to date.
As a national health challenge, obesity has aroused different opinions and controversies among scholars, scientists as well as the general population. For example, in April 2018, published results of research conducted by government researchers in the USA concluded that contemporary the USA is experiencing more deaths than previously due to obesity-related health complications. Controversy arose when another different government agent in November 2018 reached that obesity and heavyweight individuals have a lower rate of mortality compared to the general populace of ordinary people. Initially, after the first publication, the mainstream media warned the USA citizens against consuming excess fats as well as wrote essential articles on how to potentially prevent obesity. However, after the second publication on obesity, the newspapers and the mainstream media, in general, propagated juicy stories in regards to how excess fact is crucial as it improves an individual’s life expectancy. The two research conclusion from the USA government research created controversy.
Increased controversy in obesity-related issues has been mainly attributed to increased research flaws. It is regrettable to both the government agencies and research departments that produce flawed researches without necessarily verifying the authenticity of the research. It is also unfortunate that the mainstream media could have taken such information and published it to the media consumers without necessarily ascertaining whether such information is based on the obesity epidemic condition in the USA. For example, in the second research publication, the researchers underestimated the relationship between increased individual weight and the particular mortality risks. The research does not show the prowess in understanding and differentiating the relationship between an individual’s health and weight.
Empirical research conducted by the American Heart Associations in one of the middle-level school in New York concluded that obesity levels are more prevalent among the young schooling population than they are in adults. In this research, the American Heart Association grouped the students about their body mass index (BMI). Additionally, they compared the rations of BMI to the student’s heights as an incidental pointer of obesity and overweight. In particular, the students were grouped into four BMI categories. In the first category (BMI below 12.0) students were classified as underweight, normal weight was organised under the 12.1-15.7 BMI while obese, overweight students were grouped under BMI over 15.8. Subsequently, the researchers then tracked the BMI to assess which group of the four had a higher mortality rate.
While the organisation of such research sounds theoretically simple, it is utterly difficult mainly because determining the actual range of the associated BMI as well as the corresponding mortality rate required the researchers to conduct their result analyses using a research approach that can result to bias. One critical challenge in this research is the assumption that even underweight bodies are often caused by chronic illnesses. Regardless of this scientific phenomena, the research found that there was an increased number of students with a BMI over 15.8. The corresponding figure indicated that almost 45.76% of the school’s population were grouped under BMI over 15.8. These are students who are ill and have gained weight as a result of overweight. For the underweight below 12.0, respondents in this group were characterised either having diseases that potentially resulted in their underweight or healthy individuals on their normal BMI. The researchers in this research removed the bias research phenomena through the integration of reverse causation on both the underweight and the overweight. This factor ensured that the artificial mortality rate was dismissed as part of the research and only actual figures were provided.
The aged particularly those aged 70 years and above are also critically affected by obesity. Another research conducted demonstrated that a vast populace but less than the obesity population among the children suffers from obesity (). Measuring the BMI of adults aged 70 years and above demonstrates worrying figures. Among the elderly, weight loss is common and mainly attributed to chronic illnesses as well as reduced muscle masses. This factor is a challenge as it prevents researchers from estimating the excess mortality rate among this population that ought to have been caused by obesity and overweight. For example, if an individual is obese at the age of 45, this overweight may grow to cause diabetes when the individual is 55 years old. At 65 years, the individual may develop heart illnesses which eventually may result to his or her death at the age of 70 years. In this process, there is extensive mass wasting of body muscles and excessive loss of weight. In this case, it would be biased for a researcher to exclusively consider the relationship between mortality rate and BMI starting at the age 65 years when the individual developed health incapacitation that may have resulted to weight loss while the actual weight loss that resulted to death was gained when the individual was 45 years. Therefore, a major cause of controversy in the obesity research is the failure of researchers to use critical and accurate research guidelines in measuring BMI and the corresponding mortality rate to avert the potentiality of research bias.
Contemporary, it is estimated that almost three in a group of five children are suffering from obesity. The health impact of overweight among children in particular is vast. Also, one adult in every five adults in America suffers from obesity. In particular, these health impacts go beyond children BMI and the respective mortality rates. Overweight and obese related health challenges have been attributed to increased health risks including increased rates of hypertensions, numerous chronic health illnesses, stroke, and increased rate at which children are getting sick of heart diseases as well as extensively contributed to skyrocketing of related obese healthcare expenses. Researchers have argued that the American populace is yet to witness the comprehensive consequences associated with increased obesity epidemic rates in particular among children and young adolescents. This necessitates the need of different stakeholders uniting in averting future critical consequences of this healthcare concern.
As a result of the rapid increasing rate in obesity rates, different policies, at different levels including the regional, local and national levels have prompted the use of different policies in pursuit of preventing this epidemic. One critical policy targeted at reducing the rates of obesity is increasing rates on junk and other unhealthy foods. As earlier discussed, when the costs of unhealthy foods and beverages such as soft drinks are at a lower cost, the consumers can easily purchase these products. Junk foods are unhealthy and scientifically proven to contribute to increased obesity rates in the USA. The unhealthy foods cost differential has also been found to result to disparities in obesity related illnesses and for those individuals who are low-income earners, they mostly consume these foods for the olow price tag ignoring the eventual critical health impacts. The purpose of increasing taxation on unhealthy foods is to discourage and avert their increased consumption. In particular, the USA is using the taxation policy on beverages that have been sugar sweetened in addition to other junk foods. This has proven to be an effective policy as it prevents easy consumer’s access to the unhealthy food line.
Another critical policy purposed at regulating the rates of obesity in the USA is reforming the Food and Beverages Assistance Programs. The USA has the largest food and beverages program in the world known as the SNAP. This program is responsible for providing food and beverages permits to business vendors who are particularly involved in the sale of foods and beverages. However, this assistance program is not always effective and critical policy measures are required to increase its effectiveness in controlling the increasing number of food and beverages businesses particularly those selling unhealthy foods. One such policy is institution of critical policies that would enhance the growth of businesses selling healthy fruits at a lower price as this would restrict them from purchasing unhealthy food products.
The USA government should institute a policy that ensure that all foods and beverages indicates their calories levels. A large percentage of the USA population spends much of their food costs on outside catering and restaurant services. However, this population lacks appropriate methods through which can be used to measure and assess the calorie levels in the foods. Much of the restaurant foods are mostly associated with increased fats which are arguably of low nutritional benefits. As such, all restaurant menus should be accompanied by a calorie label as this can empower the consumers with important information regarding the foods they are consuming and thus ensure that they make the appropriate health decision.
In conclusion, this paper has demonstrated that obesity as a healthcare epidemic requires immediate solutions from different stakeholders. Evidently, obesity is a public healthcare crisis in the USA. As such, the healthcare issue rises to the degree of one of the critical healthcare issues that requires urgent crisis resolution. It is therefore important to identify important strategies and policies that work effectively in reducing further prevalence of the health issue. There is need to emphasize and pursue on the policy solutions that this essay has provided at it would comprehensively aid in reducing the increasing number of individuals suffering from obesity.