Essay Example on Childhood Obesity: Social Impact & Historical Evaluation

Introduction

Childhood obesity has an enormously detrimental impact on both its victims and on society as a whole. A thorough historical evaluation of childhood obesity shows an association between patterns of weight issues among children and social effects related to it - which are both impacted directly or indirectly. Obesity has a myriad of the significant effects on both adults and children, although analyzing it through the history and analysis lens seeks to reveal existing links and correlations between childhood obesity's historical patterns and social effects of the problem.

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Childhood Obesity Through The lens History Lens

A critical evaluation of the general history of pediatric obesity indicates that the number of cases is increasing with time. Most of the pediatric obesity events track the victims to their adulthood. The historical pattern of adulthood obesity mirrors that of pediatric obesity. However, the rates at which the trends occur are different. While the percentage of childhood and adulthood obesity cases keeps rising, the related data exhibits that the former is growing at a faster rate than the latter. An analysis of the obesity cases indicated that pediatric obesity has risen by 3.4 times from 1972 to 2014, with the percentage rising from 5% to 17% (Rosenbaum, 2018). The historical shift in the number of childhood obesity incidences mirrors the change in dietary intake and lifestyle change, with a rising overrepresentation of sedentary lifestyles and more caloric foods than in the previous settings.

Childhood obesity affects the social issues that dictate the lives of children. Some of the social problems that influence teenagers' lives include stigmatization, bullying, and exclusion. While the incidences of social issues are mostly high among kids, the effect of childhood obesity heightens the occurrence of the injustices. Primarily, being obese as a child is one of the most socially unacceptable issues. Hence, childhood obesity increases the prevalence of social problems. Most of the obese children are most likely to be bullied in schools and other social arenas (Sahoo et al., 2015). Besides, the other children often exclude obese children from social activities, especially those that involve physical exercises. Moreover, childhood obesity increases the chances of negative stereotypes against the victims.

The history of childhood obesity helps explain the rise in emotional problems among children. Notably, psychological problems are among the causes of pediatric obesity (Sahoo et al., 2015). Other factors that lead to childhood obesity include environmental and lifestyle changes. The rise in the cases of childhood obesity, therefore, does not solely depend on dietary and other physical factors. Instead, they are also dependent on the increase in emotional problems among kids. The history of childhood obesity and the resulting detrimental social issues that arise from the event helps understand why the incidences keep growing. Noteworthy, the social injustices against obese children are instrumental in the rise in the number of cases. In essence, social rejection pushes children into seclusion and sedentary lifestyles, making it hardly possible to eradicate the weight problem among teenagers. Due to the distress of isolation and bullying, most kids find comfort in living in solitude, making it hard to address pediatric obesity. The social implications of childhood obesity also indicate a lack of social awareness concerning the event.

Childhood Obesity through the Humanities Perspective

Society depicts obese people differently. The primary societal portrayal of childhood obesity occurs in various media outlets. While the media does not necessarily paint the picture of pediatric obesity, it depicts obesity as a general issue (Pearl et al. 2015). The depiction of overweight individuals exhibits their love for the causative agents of obesity. Most of the media outlets paint stereotypical images of obesity. For instance, the media paints obese people to have the least phobia for fatty foods. They have also been depicted to have a positive attitude towards physical exercises. The media also portrays underweight people, on the contrary, as being phobic to fats.

The commentary of the depiction is an unrealistic portrayal of obesity. Notably, the picture implies that obesity is solely under the control of the victim. In essence, the representation means that obese individuals are to blame for obesity, which is the right idea, according to health science (Stanford et al. 2018). Contrarily, health science reveals that despite the individual playing an instrumental role in the occurrence of obesity, multiple factors play a role in its incidences. Medical, advocacy and research institutions have recognized obesity as a chronic and complex disease. However, representation of the event by society illustrates that the community has not yet acknowledged obesity as an illness. Instead, the depiction exhibits that people understand the issue as a personally created problem.

Conclusion

As a health practitioner, I find the representation of obesity and overweight people misguiding because it further leads to misconceptions about the disease, as well as making it harder to fight and prevent the illness than it could have been in the society painted the correct image of the event. Especially among children, the misconceptions about obesity are solely responsible for the rise in the number of cases. While exercising could be a significant effort towards addressing the weight problem among children, the misguided picture of the issue makes it hard for other kids to accept the overweight teens, making it hard to combat the weight issue (Sahoo et al., 2015). Critically, the misrepresentation of the weight menace is a constraint to my efforts to address childhood obesity as a health practitioner.

References

Pearl, R. L., Dovidio, J. F., & Puhl, R. M. (2015). Visual portrayals of obesity in health media: promoting exercise without perpetuating weight bias. Health education research, 30(4), 580-590. https://academic.oup.com/her/article/30/4/580/586124

Rosenbaum, M. (2018). Special Considerations Relevant to Pediatric Obesity. In Endotext [Internet]. MDText. com, Inc., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279060/

Sahoo, K., Sahoo, B., Choudhury, A. K., Sofi, N. Y., Kumar, R., & Bhadoria, A. S. (2015). Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. Journal of family medicine and primary care, 4(2), 187. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408699/

Stanford, F. C., Tauqeer, Z., & Kyle, T. K. (2018). Media and its influence on obesity. Current obesity reports, 7(2), 186-192. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5959781/