African American Obesity Sociology

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Over the past generation obesity has become a major health issue. The term obesity is best describe as someone having a body mass index (BMI) equal to or above the 95th percentile. Within both genders of African American children and adolescent obesity has increased tremendously. Obesity can contribute too many chronic illnesses down the line if left untreated such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, asthma, and type 2 diabetes (Coreil, 2009). Studies have reported that within low income communities 1 out of 3 children are considered as overweight or obese (Ogden et al., 2010). Just counting for obesity within African Americans alone obesity has spike from 10.4% to 24.4% (Ogden et al., 2010). The key points which will be discussed are the social