According to some sources, almost 70% of U.S. adults aged 20 years and older have been found either obese or overweight (Faguy, 2016). Other sources state that the overall number of obese Americans, including all age groups, is 35.8% (Barnes, Theeke, & Mallow, 2015). This data shows that obesity is a serious health concern in our country. Obesity is determined on the ground of the National Institutes of Health guidelines for obesity diagnosis and treatment. In particular, these days BMI, aka Body Mass Index, is the standard used to quantify obesity and overweight status (Barnes, Theeke, & Mallow, 2015).
As to the National Institutes of Health clinical guidelines, they define overweight as BMI greater than or equal to 25, and they define obesity as BMI greater than or equal to 30 (Barnes, Theeke, & Mallow, 2015). Even though BMI charts are an easy-to-use and powerful tool, they have been reportedly underused by U.S. clinicians, so that primary care providers considerably underdiagnoze and undertreat people’s excess weight (Barnes, Theeke, & Mallow, 2015).
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"Impact of Obesity".
Obesity has serious impacts on the society. It is a key contributor to the development of MCCs (aka multiple chronic conditions), including coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, muscoskeletal disorders, depression, specific cancers, and disability. Moreover, obesity itself presents an increased risk for mortality. Along with certain physiological complications of obesity, 79.4% of obese pediatric participants in Maggio, Martin, Gasser’s (2014) study indicated that they suffered psychosocially and emotionally as a result of being bullied at school. The study also documented reduced quality of life because of shortness of breath and orthopedic abnormalities.
In other studies, issues with reduced quality of life related to obesity were decreased quality of sleep, worse functioning at school, and depression and symptoms of anxiety disorder. Finally, indirect obesity-related costs have been very high in the society, for example, globally, they have been up to 65.67 billion (Barnes et al., 2015).
- Barnes, E., Theeke, L., & Mallow, J. (2015). Impact of the provider and healthcare team adherence to treatment guidelines (PHAT-G) intervention on adherence to national obesity clinical practice guidelines in a primary care centre. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 21, 300-306.
- Faguy, K. (2016). Obesity in children and adolescents: Health effects and imaging implications.
Radiologic Technology, 87 (3), 279-302. - Maggio, A., Martin, X., & Gasser, C., et al. (2014). Medical and non-medical complications
among children and adolescents with excessive body weight. BMC Pediatrics,14, 232+.
