Large-Scale Efforts to Battle Childhood Obesity Essay Assignment paper
Large-Scale Efforts to Battle Childhood Obesity Essay Assignment paper
According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, obesity is classified as having a BMI, also known as body mass index, of forty or higher (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019). A person’s body mass index is meant to be an indicator of high body fatness and, although it does not directly measure body fat, “research has shown that it is correlated with some of the more direct measures of body fat such as: skinfold thickness measurements, bioelectrical impendence, and other methods” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2014). Although a child’s BMI is calculated the same way an adult’s would be, which is weight, because weight and height changes with age BMI levels in children must be compared relatively to other children of the same sex and age (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). Childhood Obesity has become a problem of epidemic proportions. In 2014 the prevalence in obesity for children and adolescents aged two to nineteen years old, was approximately nineteen percent and affected nearly fourteen million children and adolescents (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2014). Some of the most prominent solutions for the childhood obesity epidemic include growing communities in a more effective way, varying the tactics on the battlefront, and spending time to find a common ground. Large-Scale Efforts to Battle Childhood Obesity
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Large-Scale Efforts to Battle Childhood Obesity Essay Assignment paper
One major cause of childhood obesity is that today’s cities and towns are more of a suburban sprawl. Approximately two hundred and twenty-one million people live in rural and suburban places, as opposed to the ninety-eight million that live in urban areas (Parker, 2018). One way to combat that is known as smart growth. Smart Growth is a form of urban planning that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. “Former Maryland governor Parris N. Glendening, who is now president of the nonprofit Smart Growth Leadership Institute, believes that incorporating opportunities for physical activity into built environment design is an important part of the mix to fight childhood obesity” (Hood, 2005). According to the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, policy-makers need to take a broader, more long-term view of the potential impact of their zoning decisions as the “shift of funds towards public transport, the creation of sidewalks and bicycle paths, and the preservation of open spaces are critical smart growth concepts” (Hood, 2005). If physical activity and health variables become part of the city planning discussions, smart growth can have a significant impact on the childhood obesity rates. A change would not happen overnight, but already effects can be seen in communities that were early adopters of these ideals, and they have become fun places where its citizens want to be out and about (Hood, 2005).Large-Scale Efforts to Battle Childhood Obesity
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