Children’s health
Obesity as a chronic disease in children
Childhood obesity, which is becoming an epidemic both in developed and the developing countries can be defined as having excess body fat in children. A research conducted on children in age group 5-18 years by Williams et al. (1992) categorized fat children as those containing 25% of fat in boys and 30% for girls. Various techniques such as waist circumference, skin-fold thickness, and BMI have been used extensively in the clinical environment in measuring overweight.
There are many factors that contribute to obesity among children such as; energy intake, individuals genetic background, sedimentary behavior, genetics, metabolism, and lack of physical activities to mention just a few. BMI is (25-40)% inheritable where a child inherits obesity from its parent or great-grandparent. Children with a low basal metabolic rate, which is the body usage of energy for normal resting activities, have a higher possibility of becoming obese. Dietary factors are one of the major causes where children who are fed on fast foods, sugary beverages, and snack foods are at a danger of becoming obese (Baur, Twigg & Magnusson, 2012). Other factors include
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Other than medical implications, obesity also generates social-emotional problems such as stigmatization, discrimination of the obese children and social marginalization (Moreno, Pigeot & Ahrens, 2011). However, this condition can be curbed if we all focus on its causes. Parents have the obligation of teaching their children about healthy eating, exercising and making the right nutritional choices. The most common treatment for obesity is physical exercise albeit some doctors prescribe some antibiotics to accompany the