Treating Obesity in Children

Obesity Obesity is a health problem associated with accumulation of fat in the body. Obesity data from Borough of Queenscliff and Melbourne local government authorities have some things in common. For example, in relation to gender, the number of females suffering from obesity in both local government authorities is greater than the number of males suffering from obesity.

The number of females suffering from obesity at Borough of Queenscliff is 7.5% while that of males suffering from obesity is 6.4%. The number of females suffering from obesity at Melbourne is 11.1% while the number of males suffering from obesity is 10.0%. This is in line with the observation by Glaser (2007), that obesity is more common in females than in males.

Zhang et al, 2012 recently surveyed that females tend to accumulate a lot of fat in their bodies than men. Men are more masculine than women hence they end up burning more calories in their bodies for energy generation, leading to less accumulation of fat in their bodies; a factor that contributes a lot to obesity. This could therefore indicate why both LGAs have higher rates of women who are overweight than men.

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In the two local government authorities, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus type 2 are the main causes of death amongst obese patients. At Melbourne 39% of the obese people die of type 2 diabetes mellitus while 17% die of cardiovascular related diseases. At Borough of Queenscliff, 55% of the obese die of cardiovascular related diseases, 21% of cancer, 16% of diabetes mellitus, and 8% of respiratory related diseases. Cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cancer are amongst the chronic diseases associated with obesity (Stern & Kazakaks, 2009). According to Goldstein (2005), lack of adequate health facilities and services and poor culture in addressing the prevention and management of obesity and obesity-related complications lead to increased mortality from obesity or obesity related complications. It is possible that both LGAs are experiencing high mortalities from obesity related health problems due to lack of health programs addressing obesity and associated health issues.

There is a great difference in the health services available at Borough of Queenscliffe and those found at Melbourne. Health services at Borough of Queenscliffe include services to cater for disabilities, surveillance food services, and accommodation monitoring services, environmental control services, control of infectious diseases services, and health education services. Health services offered at Melbourne include hospital institutions, dental care, services concerning abortion, home-crisis counseling, physical therapy, and youth health services.

At Borough of Queenscliff, hypertensive disease is the most common chronic disease amongst the obesity patients; it contributes to about 54% of the chronic disease cases amongst obese people. Other chronic diseases are type 2 diabetes mellitus (17%) and high cholesterol levels (29%). At Melbourne, the cases of cardiovascular disease and cancer are less common.

Goldstein (2005) concludes that availability and accessibility to health facilities and programs and a culture that address the problem of obesity lead to low cases of obesity and deaths due to

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obesity and obesity related complications. This may be the reason why there is a small difference in prevalence of obesity between the two LGAs. Obesity children in the rural LGA are lower than in metropolitan LGA. The prevalence of children obesity in rural LGA is 10.4% while that of the metropolitan LGA is 16.1%. The prevalence of children and adolescence obesity is more in boys at Borough of Queenscliff while at Melbourne, the prevalence of children and adolescence obesity is high in girls than in boys. At Borough of Queenscliff, 6.6% of boys are suffering from obesity compared to 3.8% of girls suffering from obesity. At Melbourne, 6.3% of boys are suffering from obesity compared to 9.8% girls suffering from obesity According to McLaren (2007), there is a strong relationship between obesity in adolescents and the socio-economic status of the families, with children from mid socio-economic families suffering more from obesity than those from low and high socioeconomic families. According to the data from the two LGAs, 55.4% population at the rural LGA are unemployed hence belonging to low socio-economic status while at the metropolitan LGA, 74.47% are employed; although the distribution of wealth is uneven, meaning that most of the adolescents are from mid-level income families and hence will suffer more from obesity.

Age is a determinant of health; most of the people at Melbourne are below 35 years unlike at Borough of Queenscliff where most of the people have greater than 35 years of age.

Most of the people in Borough of Queenscliff are dying of obesity associated with the cardiovascular diseases and diabetes type 2 because all these diseases are associated with old age. Joachim and Sharma (2010) indicate that there is a strong relationship between age and prevalence of diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular related diseases and obesity. At Melbourne, most of the people are less than 35 years thus the mortalities due to cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes mellitus are less common.

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Glaser, J. (2007). Obesity. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press.

Goldstein, D. J. (2005). The management of eating disorders and obesity. Totawa, NJ: Humana Press.

Joachim, H. Ix & Sharma, K. (2010). Mechanisms linking obesity, chronic kidney disease, and fatty liver disease: The roles of fetuin-A, adiponectin, and AMPK. Journal of American Society of Nephrology, 21, 406-411.

McLaren, L. (2007). Socioeconomic status and obesity. Epidemiological Reviews, 29(1), 29-48.

Stern, J. S. & Kazakaks, A. (2009). Obesity: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC. CLIO, LLC. Zhang, X., Yao, S., Sun, G., Yu, S., Sun, Z., Zheng, L., & Sun, Y. (2012). Total and abdominal obesity among rural Chinese women and the association of hypertension. Nutrition, 28(1), 46-52.