Essay On Obesity In Australia

3015 Words7 Pages

Obesity is a general heath issue, a condition where fat is accumulated in body due to increased energy production from consumption of food and drinks which is greater than the energy utilized by the body. The ongoing frequency of Obesity epidemic in Australia is leading public health challenges confronted by all healthcare professionals with compel to come up with strategies towards its prevention and control. Over the last 30 years, overweight and obesity prevalence has stirred up in Australia. The condition is not just bound among men and women but child obesity cases are rising too. The factors influencing the rise in the condition are unhealthy food habits & lifestyle, rise in fast food junctions, socioeconomic status, education, race/ethnicity, and inherited hunger gene, lack of exercise and immigrant population. Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics (based on self-reported height and weight) from the 2011–12 Australian Health Survey to calculate BMI reported nearly 63% of Australian adults are overweight or obese (1), which was 61% in the year 2007-08 (2). This means 2 out of 3 were obese or overweight. Former chair of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, Professor Rob Moodie has stated that obesity rates in Australia will dramatically worsen as other health priority …show more content…

Study conducted by the Burden of Disease and Injury in Australia (BoD) in 2003 indicated that in Australia 7.5% of the total burden of disease and injury was due to obesity. Around 55% of the burden related to diabetes, 21.3% of cardiovascular disease, 24.5% of osteoarthritis, 20.5% colorectal, breast, uterine and kidney cancers is due to obesity (4) (5). Other obesity related conditions are obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS), sleep apnea, gout, gall bladder disease & gallstones, back, mental and reproductive issues, depression, loss of self-esteem and weakening peer-group

Show More
Related

  • Neighbourhood Study

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    National Institute of Clinical Health and Excellence. (2006) Obesity: The prevention, identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in adults and children [online]. Available from: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG43 [Accessed on 19/03/2011].

    Read More

  • Obesity

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduce life expectancy and/or increased health problems. Obesity has been a health problem ever since infectious disease had began in the first half of the 20th Century. The person with obesity is not the only person who is affected by their disease. In the case of childhood obesity, It can affect the parents because they might be the cause of the child’s issues. It can also lead to many different health problems such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and respiratory problems, and it can also even lead to death. Obesity has affected the world in many ways: task forces have been formed to address the issue, people are suffering from health problems due to obesity, and others suffer psychological and social issues.

    Read More

  • Obesity in Australia

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    Obesity is becoming a major health problem in developing countries like Australia, North America, Europe and other developing nations. The Australian Diabetes, obesity and life style study (AUSDIAB) predicts the changes in glucose indices; health behaviour and incidence of diabetes in 5 year follow up experiments among 5842 participants (Barr et al., 2007). This study suggests that a large number of Australians suffered mortality due to cardiovascular diseases associated with abnormal glucose metabolism every year. The Framingham Heart Study revealed that hypertension, diabetes and left ventricular remodelling lead to the development of congestive heart failure (Levy et al., 1996). The Framingham Heart Study also found that a 5% increase in weight increases the chance of hypertension by 30% over a four-year period of time. An increased sympathetic activity, impaired renin-angiotensin system, retention of fluid volume, peripheral vasoconstriction, dyslipidaemia, increased blood viscosity due to the increased haematocrit and fibrinogen may increase pressure overload on heart in obesity (Schunkert, 2002). Several studies also suggest that the cause of hypertension itself may contribute to left ventricular hypertrophy in obese individuals as the increase of BMI increases the chance of hypertension (De Simone et al., 1994; Avelar et al., 2007). High dietary fat intake increases the expression of angiotensin IB(AT1B) and Endothelin A (ETA) receptors (Neilsen et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005). Plasma concentrations of angiotensin II and endothelin 1 (physiological vasoconstrictor agents) were increased in both obese patients and animal models (Barton et al., 2000; Neilsen et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005). Recent studies have shown that reduced synthesis of nitric oxide (NO; a major vasodilator) from L-arginine in endothelial cells is a major factor contributing to the impaired action of insulin in the vasculature of obese and diabetic subjects. Obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Growing evidence suggests that arginine plays an important role in regulating metabolism of energy substrates in mammals (Frank et al. 2007; Jobgen et al. 2006). NO is synthesized from L-arginine by NO synthase. As a signalling molecule, physiological levels of NO stimulate glucose uptake, as well as glucose and fatty-acid oxidation in skeletal muscle, heart, liver, and adipose tissues (Jobgen et al. 2006). Nitric oxide also inhibits the synthesis of glucose, glycogen and lipid in liver and adipose tissues and enhances lipolysis in subcutaneous adipocytes (Jobgen et al.

    Read More

  • Big Food Is Making America Sick Again Summary

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    “What is obesity? Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer and while it was once an issue only in high income countries, overweight and obesity has now dramatically risen in low- and middle-income countries. Such countries are now facing a "double burden" of disease,

    Read More

  • The Cost Of Obesity On The Nhs

    2117 Words  | 5 Pages

    Obesity is clinically defined as a body mass index (BMI) of above 30kg/m2 and is the accumulation of excess adipose tissue1. It is currently viewed as an epidemic due to the increasingly large proportion of adults who are now obese, with the incidence rapidly rising in the recent years. In a five year period from 1995-2000 there was a predicted increase of 100 million obese individuals world-wide 2. In UK it is estimated that over 25% of adult males and females are obese and it is thought that these figures will continually rise with estimations that 60% of adult men and 50% of adult woman with be obese by 2025.3 Being a huge burden on the NHS, it has been predicted that £5 billion a year is spent on preventing and treating the complications of excessive weight in the UK, which is almost 5% of the total NHS budget (£5billion/£108billion).4 The cost of obesity on the NHS will rise to correlate with the increasing incidence illustrated.

    Read More

  • Obesity and Social Determinants of Health

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Overweight and obesity problem is becoming more and more serious in Australia. Not only Australians but also the world’s problem obesity is studied as one of the main causes of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers and sleep apnoea as well as other serious conditions, which put national economies and individual lives at risk. Obesity is also regarded as epidemic. Obesity is caused by a calorific imbalance between diet intake and consumed calories. Obesity has become the biggest threat to Public Health in Australia shown by Australia Bureau of Statistics (2013). Also, the prevalence of obesity is predicted as the ratio of obesity in adults and children will be doubled by 2025 (Backholer et al.2012). It is believed that this phenomenon is happening due to many social determinants of health, which have a strong negative impact on not only individuals but also society and economy. (Wilkinson and Marmot 2003) The social determinants of health are explained as conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age by WHO (Wilkinson & Marmot 2013). Different circumstances can be formed depending on their finance, power and global resources. These social determinants seem to be responsible for health inequities, which seem to be unfair and avoidable. Social determinants of health including social gradient, high calorie food intake, excessive amounts of stress and poor early life care are the relevant factors to contribute to be or being obesity. It is important to understand that the correlation of social determinants of health and obesity to manage the health problems and enhance public’s health.

    Read More

  • Essay On Public Health

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    (Jonas Minet, Stephen morris 2010). The prevalence of obesity has increased more than twofold in the last 25 years. In 2014, world health organisation (WHO) estimates that 1.9 billions of world’s adult populations are overweight, of which at least 600 million were obese, representing 13% of adult’s population (obesity WHO, 2014). Obesity is no longer a rich country’s problem, but also affects the poor and emerging countries which make it a major public health challenge. ( )

    Read More

  • Obesity : Obesity And Obesity

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    Amongst one of the bigger health issues in United States children is obesity. Obesity is a condition in which a person has accumulated an excess amount of body fat that it has become detrimental to their health. To track this health professionals use the term “obese” when a person has a body mass index (BMI) of over 30. Although BMI should not be the only determining factor of whether or not you child is obese as it only takes into account of height and weight, it is one of the better known systems of telling whether or not a person is overweight or obese (Nichols). Obesity comes with a range of other health conditions that can include but are not limited to cancer, diabetes, and depression. Not only do children and teens who suffer from obesity acquire many health diseases, they also tend to get failing grades and are bullied amongst peers. Most Americans correlate being obese with having an unhealthy lifestyle, but according to a 2006 Fox News article there may be other factors that attribute to obesity that include smoking, medicine, pollution, technology and lack of sleep. (“10 Causes of Obesity Other Than Overeating”). One part that does although indeed play a role in to child obesity rates is economics.

    Read More

  • Obesity In Australia

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    The obesity epidemic remains one of the nation’s most serious health crises, putting millions of people at increased risk for a range of chronic diseases and costing the country billions of dollars in preventable healthcare spending. There is a growing epidemic of obesity in Australia and also worldwide. The commonness of obesity has doubled to 65% of the world’s population live in countries where obesity and overweight kills more people than underweight does (WHO, 2014). Intrusions and preventions have become key strategies in reducing the impact of the obesity. This include the involvement of the healthcare, government, and the media. In addition, media usage may deliver auspicious opportunities to certainly affect the problem. Leading policy

    Read More

  • Obesity as a Social Issue

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mcnaughton, D. 2013. ‘Diabesity’down under: overweight and obesity as cultural signifiers for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Critical public health, 23 (3), pp. 274--288.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Ministry Of Food By Jamie Oliver

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    The government should be taking responsibility as now almost 2 in 3 adults are obese. This means that into the future there will be more and more people dying or becoming sick from diseases such as diabetes. The Australia government should be warning those who are overweight about the potential illnesses and educating those who don’t know about them. The government should be taking responsibility and doing something about obesity and the poor diet of a large percentage of Australians as in the future the healthcare needed for these people will increase and cost the government a lot of money. To prevent this from happening, the government should be doing everything they can to improve the eating habits of

    Read More

  • Gene-Environment Interaction Essay

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    Obesity is labeled as a disease by American Medical Association in 2013.According to World Health Organization,people are considered obese if their body mass index in greater than 30kg body weight per meter square of body height. With over 1 billion people now overweight or obese, the World Health Organization has proclaimed this to be a global epidemic (Haslam & James, 2005). Obesity can cause many physical and mental syndromes, diseases and disorders in various medical fields such as cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, respirology (Poirier et al., 2006). As a result, obesity has been found

    Read More

  • Obesity Persuasive Speech

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slide 1 Hello, everyone. I am Claudia Kim and the first year of the nursing student. Let me begin with very simple questions about the topic, obesity. Do you know what the prevalence of obesity in the Australia is and how many people die every single day because of weight-related diseases? Today, I am going to talk about one of the major global issues, obesity.

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity in New Zealand

    2619 Words  | 6 Pages

    Childhood obesity is a growing problem not only in New Zealand but worldwide. This is due to many factors and has many effects on society. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 30. BMI is a measure of your weight divided by your height, the normal range is considered to be from 18 to 25 and over 30 is said to be obese. BMI became an international standard for obesity measurement in the 1980s (S.Wilson, 2000). Obesity is not just a modern day problem, Ancient Egyptians are said to consider obesity as a disease, having been drawn in a wall of depicted illnesses. Perhaps the most famous and earliest evidence of obesity is the Venus figurines, statuettes of an obese female torso that probably had a major role in rituals. Ancient China has also been aware of obesity and the dangers that come with it. They have always been a believer of prevention as a key to longevity (L.Dobbins, Dec 2007). Obesity is considered to be a problem because it is a risk factor for many chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes. The New Zealand health strategy has two objectives that relate directly to obesity, to improve nutrition and to increase physical activity (Reuters, Feb. 15 2008). Experts and the media are feeding us with information on this ‘,obesity epidemic’, but is there actually a problem? An epidemic is the occurrence of more cases of a disease than would be expected in a community or region during a given time period. According to New Zealand Herald 95% of parents considered the number of overweight and obese children to be a significant problem. In other words there is sufficient evidence to say we do have an obesity epidemic on our hands.

    Read More

  • Causes of Obesity

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    Obesity is a common condition that affects thousands around the world. Its causes may vary from simply eating too much to not getting the exercise needed to attempting to quit smoking. Treatment of this condition may be as simple as getting the right diet or exercise, or a planned schedule from one’s physician. Obesity may be heredity or may be a result of any of the above mentioned causes. It is a serious matter to be dealt with yet may be treated easily.

    Read More

More about Essay On Obesity In Australia

Open Document