Obesity And Community Affects

Community Issue-Obesity

The United States is not known for being one of the world's healthiest countries. We have become a nation that loves convenience, fast food, and television, and that deadly combination has created high levels of obesity across the country and in our community of Pueblo, Colorado. A person is considered overweight or obese if his or her BMI (Body Mass Index) is greater than 30. (Porter 1) Since the 1970's, the rate of obesity among adults in Pueblo county has doubled while the rate of obesity in youth has tripled. In the Pueblo community alone up to one third of an obese adult's health care cost is due to taking care of health issues such as, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, heart disease, stroke, asthma, and arthritis. (Nevin-Woods 1) Aside from the health issues attributed to obesity, there are other community issues linked directly to obesity in Pueblo. The increase in poverty, our failing schools, increase in taxes and the increase in medical costs are issues linked directly to obesity.

In Pueblo, it is estimated that 1 in 7 children between the ages of 6 to 17 are overweight and or obese. That is a staggering 14 percent, compared to 5 percent almost 20 years ago.(Porter 1,2) Over the past 20 years, our community has become more sedentary in part due to a shift in focus for entertainment activities. We have become more obsessed than ever with computers, television, smart phones, and video games, and these activities do not encourage physical fitness. The impact that obesity is having on the Pueblo community and the State of Colorado is serious enough that Mark Udall, Colorado State Senator, was quoted saying, ""Childhood obesity doesn't just lead to health problems for American families; the rising costs of treating and living with obesity-related illnesses strains family budgets and our entire economy and, with one in four military recruits being rejected for being overweight, it even puts our national security at risk. While this is a growing crisis for the country, it's one that we can slow down and even reverse if we work together". (Udall 1) This means that obesity affects so much more than just the health of the individual. Everyone in our community as well as in our state is negatively affected by the rising obesity epidemic.

Obesity and the adjoining diseases will have its significance across all sectors of the economy, governments, businesses, medical facilities, and households, as all these interrelated sectors play an important role in the provision, financing and consumption of health care in the U.S. For example, Federal, State and local governments collect taxes from businesses and households to finance public health insurance programs and to directly provide health care to households. Businesses provide employment to U.S. households and also provide health insurance to their employees. Local businesses have increased the cost of health insurance to their employees by having the employees pay more rather than the business absorb the increase in health insurance costs. Households are the final consumers of health care and also bear some incidence of health care costs.

The number of obese and overweight people in Pueblo total 41.1% of the population; 23.3% being adults and 17.8% being children, so why should you, a physically fit and healthy individual care about the rising obesity issue? (Pueblo 1, Porter1) If you are a tax paying citizen there are no exemptions; everyone will be responsible to cover the rising medical care and insurance premiums associated with obesity. As stated above, federal, state and local governments collect taxes from businesses and households to finance public health insurance programs and to directly provide health care to households. Pueblo's economy is experiencing a huge increase in social welfare, obesity, Medicare, and Medicaid costs that the City Council has been cutting programs that cover these deficits. Middle schools are being closed, teachers are being laid off, school lunch programs are being compromised by exceeding the federal limit on total calories and saturated fats in a daily allowance and the overall moral of students are being impacted. As a result our local taxes are increased and we have less money in our paychecks come payday. Unfortunately a working individual that is healthy and takes care of themselves will be taxed equally as the individual who is obese. When taxes are increased the working class citizens of Pueblo has less residual income for entertainment, specialty items, and recently insurance for themselves and their families. The increase in taxes to cover health care, food stamps, and rising Medicare and Medicaid is impacting the working class to the degree that they have less money for groceries and especially healthy food. As a result of this Pueblo's fast food restaurants are experiencing a huge rise in customers for the simple reason the fast food chains are offering huge incentives, for ex., discounts , coupons, two for ones, punch cards, to name a few that make it more financially attractive than going to the grocery store. Therefore the citizens of Pueblo are contributing to the increase in the obesity epidemic. It's a vicious circle that seems to have no end in sight.

Obesity causes children to function mentally and physically much slower than children with normal weight. (Malone 1) The obesity epidemic has impacted the Pueblo youth, 12.5 percent of children ages 2 to 14 are overweight and 17.8 percent of the same age group is obese. (Porter 1) Obese children have been shown to have lower IQ test scores, slower learning comprehension, and overall less enjoyment in school which has been attributed to the higher consumption of processed foods, sugar snacks, and soda's. (Malone 1) With obesity comes an increase in psychosocial problems. Children and teenagers in Pueblo County are isolating themselves by watching more television, playing video games, communicating through social media while they sit and enjoy snack food that is very poor in nutrition. They isolate themselves because of the social and emotional fallout they are experiencing from being bullied, teased, and treated like second rate citizens. Overweight children tend to have more anxiety and poorer social skills than normal weight children have. Social isolation and low self-esteem create overwhelming feelings of hopelessness in some overweight children. When children lose hope that their lives will improve, they're well on the way to depression.

The connection between obesity and depression is becoming increasingly evident as new discoveries are being made and new tests are being conducted. Serotonin levels in the brain of a healthy