Obesity Among Children Aged 6 to 12 Years. Causes and Risk Factors

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Medicine - Public Health, grade: 1, Egerton University, language: English, abstract: Obesity among children aged 6 -12 years has become an enormous challenge to the global healthcare systems. Currently, the prevalence rate of obesity has reached the highest range in the past two decades and this is attributable to the low well-being and overall health among children which is estimated to have decreased by 37% compared to the case in 1970s. Childhood obesity is distributed to all parts of the world even though western countries have long been associated with high prevalence, but such trends seem to have changed. Currently, developing countries account for about 35 million obese and overweight children of the total 43 million, globally. Obesity among children poses risk to the future adult generation; thus, it requires appropriate intervention to reduce its burden. It is believed that socio-economic factors are to blame for the high prevalence of childhood obesity. For instance, economic and educational statuses of households influence the lifestyle of family members, especially with regard to dietary habits. Therefore, introducing health measures to promote health education among children and the young people in educational systems will help to reduce its prevalence in future; thus, reducing its burden.