This report provides a study and analysis on obesity, a disease that continues to plague Alaskan of all generations, to help strategize and create a priority plan on how to combat the growing number of obese Alaskan. Specifically, this study aims to discuss:
1. The population’s health status and the extent of the problem;
2. The context of the public health issue related to Healthy People 2020 objectives and Healthy Alaskans 2010/2020;
3. The public health issue in the context of the essential public health services;
4. Potential ethical issues raised by the case;
5. Program/policy approaches that may be employed to address the issue; Obesity remains a serious health issue in Alaska and this affects individuals of all ages across the state, regardless of racial or ethnic background or level of education or income. This condition increase the number of risks
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This ranked the state the 26th state with the most number of obese adults. This means that of the estimated population of 738,432 in 2015 , of which 25.2% were below the age of 18 and 9.9% over 65 years old, an estimated three hundred twenty one thousand are obese. Kaiser-Permanente provides a representative data for the adult male and female population. As shown in the table below, the obesity rate for adults male has been almost consistent from 2013 to 2015. On the other hand, there has been an uptick on the rate for female. Other demographics show that those over the age of 65 ranked highest in obesity rate at 34.7% followed by those between the age of 26 and 44 at 31.3%, while those between 18 and 25 years old have an obesity rate of 19.2%. When broken down by race, the black accounts for 40.5%, followed by the Latinos at 28.3% and the whites making up for at 27.7%.
Source: Kaiser Family