Social And Environmental Determinants Of Obesity And Being Overweight

Negative Effects of Obesity

Discuss about the Influence of Social and Environmental Determinants.

Obesity and the state of being overweight is a condition whereby someone has excess fat or adipose tissue in the body. This condition comes with a lot of negative effects in the health of a person and requires to be checked and eliminated to avoid its progress to life threatening health conditions. There are several health problems associated with obesity and these include diabetes, heart problems, cancer, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, gout, sleep apnea and asthma. These conditions put the life of someone at risk and hence the need to prevent obesity. The normal BMI for an average person falls from 18.5 to 25. People who are overweight normally exceed this range. According to De Silva, et al 2014, this condition is brought about mainly by taking more calories than they are being burned resulting into excessive fat deposition within body tissues. Various factors can affect or lead to the state of being obese or overweight including lifestyle and feeding habits. The aim of this discussion is explain the social and environmental determinant to obesity and the state of being overweight.

Obesity is a disorder that is not selective in terms of age and can affect both children and adults in general. Childhood obesity is becoming more and more in our generation today and is mainly triggered by a child’s feeding habits where they consume a lot of junk food. Obesity in adults is as well of concern in our world today as some social habits are leading to this condition in most men and women. There are a number of social factors that have led to people becoming overweight and obese. One of the leading factors is the feeding habits of an individual. People who are used to taking junk foods and deserts such as cakes, ice creams and highly sugared food substances tend to be overweight and obese compared to those that do not. Study has shown that these food substances tend to have a lot of calories and therefore lead to obesity if taken frequently (van der Horst, 2008). This is because the person ends up consuming more calories and if he remains inactive they are converted into fat. The number of times one takes a meal in a day also contributes to obesity. The standard frequency of food consumption in a single day is normally thrice. However it is not unusual for some people to take meals more than this with some even taking twice the number. This also results in more calories than are being used especially if the person does not indulge in exercise.

Social Determinants of Obesity and Being Overweight

The environment around us in the world today also encourages people to consume junk food considering that there are so many fast food restaurants within any particular city or town. This makes it favorable for people to stop by these and take high calorie based food such as fries and burgers which when taken frequently may cause obesity. Vending machines situated everywhere encourage people to grab a soda or a child to buy some candy all which contain high amounts of calories. The obesity disorder linked to these food types however come to play when the person who frequently takes them remains dormant and does not effectively burn the calories (Delavari, et al 2015). It is therefore okay to say that the problem is mainly not at the food types but the habits associated with the food types. People who mainly engage in various forms of physical activity such as exercising frequently are unlikely to become obese compared to those who do not engage in any activity since the calories are not burned but converted into fat deposits.

Social class has also been considered as one of the factors affecting obesity in our society today. In developed countries, it is assumed that the rich and wealthy are capable of affording healthy lifestyles. They have access to nutritious food which might be expensive to the poor as well as they are able to pay for gym facilities to cut off weight when need be. These facilities are limited to those of a lower social class since gyms are expensive and they cannot afford to keep their weight in check (Sartorius, et al 2015). The wealthy also tend to face a lot of pressure from the society to remain slim and hence strive to maintain these standards. However, this is not always the case since in developing countries, some people tend to access all sought of expensive food stuff which might also contain high levels of calories. The poor also might turn out to be malnourished due to limited access to food as most of them rely on relief foods and aids.

Education is also a key aspect that affects obesity taking place. The level of education of someone affects their feeding habits and behaviors may have a big impact on their weight. The higher the level and access to education, the lesser the chances of one becoming obese in any given society. According to Adeniyi, et al 2015, it is observed that people who have had access to health education tend to maintain good BMI and weight in general since they observe good feeding habits. Lower levels of education and incomes on the other hand are widely associated with obesity and being overweight. Stress is also an important factor that has been linked to obesity. This is because stress and other emotional states affect the brain in a way that makes someone change their feeding habits. Someone who is stressed tends to eat a lot of food since their feeding centers in the brain are normally activated (Oates, et al 2018). It is believed that stress activates secretion of both glucocorticoids hence increasing motivation for food intake.

Feeding Habits

Some social behaviors such as smoking tobacco and alcohol consumption have been linked to weight gain and obesity. The frequency at which someone abuses this drugs has proven to affect their feeding habits (Robertson, 2014). For example alcohol drinking might stimulate eating in social settings. It is also true that alcohol contains a lot of calories which might lead to obesity. Maternal smoking has also proven to show significant overweight results for the children born. As supported by Roth et al 2014, early malnutrition in children has also been linked to obesity. This is because of endocrine changes that occur during the periods of malnutrition, promoting storage of fat once the calories are made available.

Apart from the numerous social habits that promote obesity, the environment also has a lot of role to play in promoting this condition. The advancements and technology being discovered everyday around us has promoted physical inactivity. As stated by Miljkovic et al 2018, the presence of machinery like cars has made people drive around even to short distanced places instead of walking. Introduction of farming machinery like tractors have made people inactive as they prefer using the tractors as to digging the farm themselves manually hence increasing the chances of getting overweight or obese. The jobs available nowadays involve people sitting behind desks in offices and using computers all day thereby encouraging inactivity. Even though the world is advancing with such trends, it should be made aware of the need to involve in physical activities from time to time to avoid excess fat deposition and hence prevent obesity. The sedentary lifestyle is being promoted by availability of television screens and video games for children which have become the talk of the day (Kazimierczuk, et al 2016). This have reduced activity of even children in playgrounds since they prefer watching the television or playing video games to actual playing hence promoting obesity.

In conclusion, it is the duty and obligation of everyone to maintain healthy lifestyles and protect themselves from getting obese. Since obesity is a disorder, everyone ought to pick on the food types to eat and engage themselves in physical activities as much as possible. The condition is also self-treatable and can be reversed by eliminating sedentary lifestyles and engaging in healthy feeding habits. Technology has helped the world grow and become better but it should not prevent people from engaging in physical activities.

Reference

De Silva, A.P., de Silva, S.H.P., Liyanage, I.K., Rajapakse, L.C., Jayasinghe, K.S.A., Kotulanda, P., Wijeyaratne, C.N., Wijeratne, S. and Haniffa, R., 2014. Social determinants of obesity in Kalutara District.

Delavari, M., Sønderlund, A.L., Mellor, D., Mohebbi, M. and Swinburn, B., 2015. Migration, acculturation and environment: determinants of obesity among Iranian migrants in Australia. International journal of environmental research and public health, 12(2), pp.1083-1098.

Sartorius, B., Veerman, L.J., Manyema, M., Chola, L. and Hofman, K., 2015. Determinants of obesity and associated population attributability, South Africa: Empirical evidence from a national panel survey, 2008-2012. PloS one, 10(6), p.e0130218.

Adeniyi, O.V., Longo-Mbenza, B. and Goon, D., 2015. Female sex, poverty and globalization as determinants of obesity among rural South African type 2 diabetics: a cross-sectional study. BMC public health, 15(1), p.298.

Oates, G.R., Phillips, J.M., Bateman, L.B., Baskin, M.L., Fouad, M.N. and Scarinci, I.C., 2018. Determinants of Obesity in Two Urban Communities: Perceptions and Community-Driven Solutions. Ethnicity & disease, 28(1), pp.33-42.

Roth, C., Foraker, R.E., Payne, P.R. and Embi, P.J., 2014. Community-level determinants of obesity: harnessing the power of electronic health records for retrospective data analysis. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 14(1), p.36.

Kazimierczuk, F. and Bryant, D., 2016. The Social Determinants of Obesity: Examining The Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender in African American Women. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116(9), p.A34.

Miljkovic, D., de Miranda, S.H., Kassouf, A.L. and Oliveira, F.C., 2018. Determinants of obesity in Brazil: the effects of trade liberalization and socio-economic variables. Applied Economics, 50(28), pp.3076-3088.

Robertson, A., 2014. Obesity and inequities. Guidance for addressing inequities in overweight and obesity.

van der Horst, K., Oenema, A., van de Looij-Jansen, P. and Brug, J., 2008. The ENDORSE study: research into environmental determinants of obesity related behaviors in Rotterdam schoolchildren. BMC Public Health, 8(1), p.142.