Obesity has become a major health problem not only in America but also in other nations. In the United States, obese people account for 37 percent of the population. However obesity related diseases and health problems account for 61 percent of the health care costs every year. Of much concern is childhood obesity (CDC, 2016). In the past thirty years, childhood obesity has doubled in children. Obesity in children aged 6-11 years increased from 7 percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 2012. By this year 2012, more than a third of the children in the United States were obese.

This problem is putting a strain on people’s incomes as well as the countries resources. In addition, prevention will increase productivity as well as reduce the health care costs. Though the federal and stets governments have initiated some programs to control this epidemic, much still needs to be done. In addition, challenges such as lack of resources and lack of time to check on diet have prevented the reduction of this problem.

With the high occurrence of childhood obesity, there is need for preventive measures to be initiated. Physical activities are the major preventive measure when it comes to childhood obesity. Childhood obesity has both short term and long-term effects. Childhood obesity increases the chances of cardiovascular disease including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Around 70 percent of the obese youth has at least one factor risk for cardiovascular disease (CDC, 2016).

In addition, obese children also have a risk of contracting joint and bone problems, psychological and social problems, sleep apnea and poor self esteem. Obese children have a high likelihood of being obese as adults. With that, they will have a high likelihood of health problems such as stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and osteoarthritis.

A major impact of obesity is increased cost of health care. The costs of health care have generally increased over the year. Obesity has been one of the major contributors to this rise. The federal government has been spending a lot of money on medic are and Medicaid. With the increase, taxes such as payroll tax and income Tax on social security benefits which are used to fund Medicare will have to increase. This will translate to reduced income for the employees as well as the retired and self employed.

Less income leads to low quality of life (Wang et al.., 2011). In addition, obesity is not covered by the Medicare thought the health problems associated with obesity are covered. People with obesity have to organize for private health covers which are expensive. In general, the increased rates of obesity are reducing the quality of life of the population. . With the high occurrence of childhood obesity, there is need for preventive measures to be initiated. Physical activities are the major preventive measure when it comes to childhood obesity.

Obesity is caused by imbalances in calories. When there are too many calories in the body and only a few are burned, then obesity kicks in. There are several factors that determine how many calories are burned. These include body size, age and genes. Body size is the most variable factor and it can be controlled through physical activities. Keeping active can help children stay healthy by losing weight. This will help in lowering the risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke in future.

To lose weight one needs to create a deficiency of calories in the body. By exercising, calories are burned at a high rate thus creating a deficiency. It is disheartening to note that most of the children these days do not exercise. Children spend most of their time watching television, movies and playing video games. Physical activity is any movement that burn calories. There are planned, repetitive and structured activities that are aimed at keeping fitness. It is hard to lose weight and keep it off meaning it is better to avoid gaining it in the first place. Physical activities help in the reduction of weight through different ways. One of the ways is that it increases the energy expenditure in the body.

When in physical activities, the body needs extra energy to keep up. Thus, the extra calories stored in the body are used during this exercise. As long as the person involved in the physical activities does not more to compensate for the burned calories, weight reduction will occur (Robinson, 1999). Another way is that activities such as push-ups and other muscle strengthening activities help to build the muscle mass. With the increase in muscle mass, the body will be burning calories throughout the day even when resting.

The energy is consumed in the generation of muscles. With calories being burnt throughout the day, it is hard to accumulate in the body. In addition, the muscle mass replaces the fats in the body thus reducing obesity. This wills inevitably help to reduce weight. Physical activities also reduce body fat reducing the chances of the development of abdominal obesity. Abdominal obesity is measured by waist size and circumference as compared to hip size.

To burn the excess calories, children should exercise regularly. The government should roll out programs in all the education facilities that facilitate compulsory physical activity for the students (Robinson, 1999). This would go a long way in the reduction of obesity among the young people.  Economically, it would reduce the cost of health care associated with the management of obesity. In addition, it would also lead to an increase in the productivity of the youth. In recent times, most of the youths are overweight meaning they can be recruited to the army.

Depending on the level of weight, one should either undertake moderate activities or vigorous activities. Some of the moderate activities include walking; snow shovelling, playing and biking. Vigorous activities include jigging, jumping rope, and swimming and cross country. The two methods vary in the consumption of energy in the body. Vigorous activities help in the burning of more calories as compared to moderate activities.

With the high increase in obesity among children in the U.S, there is a speculation that watching too much TV and playing video games is the main cause.  American children watch TV and play video games more than they do anything else rather than sleeping (Robinson, 1999). Television watching contributes to obesity by reducing the amount of calories burned through displaced physical activities and increasing energy intake mainly as a result of food advertising.

A study by Robinson (1999) looked to assess how reducing children’s viewing of television can prevent obesity.  The study specified in testing the role of television, video game and videotape in the development of fats in the body as well as physical activity and dietary intake. The study designed an intervention that to decrease media use among children without necessarily promoting more active activities as replacements.

The intervention was largely bases on the Bandura’s social cognitive theory. The intervention consisted of 18 lessons of 30-50 minutes that were incorporated into the standard curriculum taught to the third and fourth grade children. Early lessons included the self-reporting and monitoring of television, video game and videotape use. The lessons were meant to motivate the children to reduce the amount of time they consume in these activities. After that, the following lessons consisted of television turnoff.

During this time children were challenged to watch no television and videotape nor play any games for exactly 10 days (Robinson, 1999). Additional lessons were also taught to the children to be intelligent viewers. Newsletters were also developed to encourage the parents to help their children to follow their time budgets.

After analysis, the results revealed that 90 percent of the participants followed at least some of the television turnoff. However, 71 percent participated in the 10 days television turnoff. In addition 585 of the children followed the time budget.  As expected with children of this age, triceps skinfold, hip circumference thickness, BMI and waist circumference all increased in both control and intervention children.

However, children I the intervention group had relative decreases in hip circumference thickness, BMI and waist circumference. There were no changes in the results when ethnicity and parent education were incorporated in the analysis. The intervention reduced the time children spent watching television and playing games.  In addition, the intervention reduced the frequency at which children eat while in a room with a television turned on.

Children are very active. If the time spent watching Television and playing games is reduced, there is a high likelihood that the time will be spent playing. When children play, they burn calories and also reduce the frequency of eating (Robinson, 1999). When children are just sitting down watching television, there is a high likelihood that they will eat a lot. In addition, television advertisements about different unhealthy products also affect these children.

The government in different states has worked very hard to control the advertising of unhealthy foods but it is hard. When adverts are placed at online videogames, it is hard for the government to control. Again, it is upon the parents to control what the children can view on the television. If parental control is not used, the children are open to view all sorts of things on the television and over the internet.

As the results suggest in the above study, controlling the time spent watching television and playing games reduced weight though slightly. If the children are encouraged to engage in physical activities as opposed to watching television, a considerable change will be achieved. Physical activities burn the excess calories in the body. In addition, it reduces the chances of the children eating unhealthy foods.

Another study by Borghese et al.., (2015) revealed that children who are obese watch too much television as compared to their counterparts. This is of great concern given that children who are high users of television will likely increase their usage with age.  Consumption of fast foods is associated with obesity ad do high television viewing. The social structures have set the idea that one should be eating while watching television. It is common to find the young people eating popcorns while in the movies.

While in the movies, no calories are being burned but calories are being consumed. With time, the calories in the body are too high leading to overweight or obesity. Too much television, videogames and video tapes watching reduces physical activities. It is important schools curriculums to incorporate physical activities. However, though physical activities in most cases incorporated in the curriculum, most of the children do not engage in these activities.

For children, parents have to take a major role in maintaining their weight. Children tend to follow instructions only when there is a follow-up. Though the school curriculum in this country has incorporated physical activities, most of the children do not adhere to it. Children will often prefer to play videogame that undertake physical activities (Borghese et al.., 2015). Parents should ensure that their children do not watch much television or play videogames at the expense of foregoing physical activities. Again, parents should ensure that children eat healthy especially when it comes to fast foods.

There needs to be increased education about obesity to the children. To increase education unawareness of obesity, the government through relevant institutions should initiate a media campaign aimed at educating children about how to prevent the occurrence of obesity. Currently, the children have access to several forms of media ranging from mass media to social media and the internet. The campaigns should be rolled out in all types of media to reach all the targeted groups.

In addition, the government should roll out programs in all the education facilities that facilitate compulsory physical activity for the students. This would go a long way in the reduction of obesity among the young people. Economically, it would reduce the cost of health care associated with the management of obesity. In addition, it would also lead to an increase in the productivity of the youth.

Obesity is a global menace. With the availability of fast foods joints all over especially in the United States, children have been exposed to all sorts of diets. The U.S. government had initiated several policies to address this problem. However, the occurrence of the condition is still high meaning more has to be done to control it.

Education and awareness through the media and internet would go a long way in the reduction of obesity. In addition, children have been seen to consume much time on the internet and watching television. These Medias should be used to spread awareness to these children. The young people for example spend considerable time on the internet and social media. If campaigns are run on social media sites such as facebook and twitter, it would reach most of the young people In addition; physical activities should be introduced to all schools. Exercising in schools should start when the children are still young so that the idea can be instilled in their minds.

Reference

Robinson, T. N. (1999). Reducing children’s television viewing to prevent obesity: a randomized controlled trial. Jama, 282(16), 1561-1567.

Borghese, M. M., Tremblay, M. S., Leduc, G., Boyer, C., Bélanger, P., LeBlanc, A. G., … & Chaput, J. P. (2015). Television viewing and food intake during television viewing in normal-weight, overweight and obese 9-to 11-year-old Canadian children: a cross-sectional analysis. Journal of nutritional science, 4, e8.

Novak, N. L., & Brownell, K. D. (2012). Role of Policy and Government in the Obesity Epidemic. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/126/19/2345.full

Obesity Prevention/ Healthy Schools /CDC. (2016). Cdc.gov. Retrieved 12 May 2016 from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm

Wang, Y. C., McPherson, K., Marsh, T., Gortmaker, S. L., & Brown, M. (2011). Health and economic burden of the projected obesity trends in the USA and the UK. The Lancet, 378(9793), 815-825.

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