Childhood Obesity

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Recommended: Negative effects of obesity

Childhood obesity continues to be a serious problem in the United States and around the world. According to Evans et al in the article Changing Perceptions of the Childhood
Obesity Epidemic, obesity is one of the primary causes of preventable death in the US, and costs billions of dollars a year in health care expenditures. Their article discussed a study in which the attitudes of adults in the United States were studied, as well as the thoughts of the participants on the best ways to reduce childhood obesity.
According to MacDougall et al in the article We Have To Live in the Future, getting children to increase their levels of physical activity is the key to reducing childhood obesity. They conducted a study of 204 children living in South Australia which attempted to answer two questions: What do children think about sports and physical activity; and how do they express those thoughts to adults. They conducted the study using several methods: focus groups, interviews, and allowing the children to take photos that related to physical activity in some way.
The study concluded that it is important and necessary to give children a voice in determining how they engage in physical activity. The children in the study were happy that their voices were being heard. They overwhelmingly expressed that they enjoyed playing according to their own ideas as opposed to the more organized sports and activities that adults tend to think of as physical activity.
Vickii B. Jenvey, in her article The Relationship Between Television Viewing and Obesity in Young Children: A Review of Existing Explanations, points out that studies show that children spend more time in sedentary leisure activities, such as watching television, playing video games, ...

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...ppen overnight, but by following these recommendations progress can begin to be made.

Works Cited

Evans, W.D., Renaud, J.M., Finkelstein, E., Kamerow, D.B., & Brown, D.S. (2006). Changing perceptions of the childhood obesity epidemic. American Journal of Health Behavior, 30, 167-
176. doi: 10.5993/AJHB.30.2.6

Jenvey, V.C. (2007). The relationship between television viewing and obesity in young children: A review of existing explanations. Early Child Development and Care, 177(8), 809-820. doi:
10.1080/03004430601119851

MacDougall, C., Schiller, W., & Derbyshire, P. (2004). We have to live in the future. Early Child
Development and Care, 174(4), 369-387. doi: 10.1080/0300443032000153426

Signorielli, N., & Lears, M. (1992). Television and children’s conceptions of nutrition: Unhealthy messages. Health Communication, 4, 245-257. doi: 10.1207/s15327027hc0404_1

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Childhood Obesity

A Proposal to Reverse Obesity Rates