subject: Obesity and the Affects of Healthcare [print this page] Obesity and the Affects of Healthcare Obesity and the Affects of Healthcare
Obesity is a serious problem in the United States, as about 20f every three adults are either obese or overweight (ref). It is predicted that 40% of adult population in the United States will be obese by the year 2015 (Eckel and Krauss, 1998). About 80% of mature people with obese conditions have other health problems, such as coronary heart disease, high levels of cholesterol, gallbladder disease, or diabetes (Davison and Birch, 2001). This implies that nearly 40% of obese Americans suffer from a number of the above conditions associated with obese. 400, 000 deaths occur every year in the United States, and have a direct link to obesity.
Social determinants
Employers should cover the medical expenses are social determinant to the well being of an individual. People suffering from obese conditions must be given the required medical care in order to increase their productivity at the work for example. Obesity is more prevalent in lower income earners compared to higher income earners, and therefore is due to poor lifestyle of an individual or poor willpower, as such avoidable conditions (Disarrays and Jones A. (2001).
Children suffering from overweight and obese related problems are considered outcast by other children in public places, such as elementary schools. This affects the health or well being of the children as they become vulnerable to low self esteem, thus developing negative personal images, which tend to continue into the adult lives of these children. Lower esteem interferes with the aspects of behavior and health, such as adjusting to social life, goal direction, and activity engagement. Research has shown that depression and obesity fall in the normal limits' for children suffering from obesity. Children having low personal esteem tend to find many avenues to craft up for being obese. Overweight children also suffer from the peer group discrimination, lack best friends to play with, and are never invited or recognized for any party or sleepovers.
The employer, and parent should come up helping to end the condition of obesity, the physicians, and health insurers should be on a forefront in fighting obesity in American society. Together with food beverage companies included in the fight on the sky will be the limit for the positive result (Dietz, 1998).
The interventions of alleviating the disease condition, such as financial incentives to the employees who loss weight should be encouraged by the employers, the employers should contribute premium to pay for weight management programs in order to increase the productivity of their employees. Financial incentives as earlier said should be favored by the employers to encourage the employees to participate in weight management programs. The parent should advice their children on the feeding habits in order to avoid being overweight, exercising school, home, and other public places should be encouraged by both the employers and parent. This will enable the reduction of excess energy calories, thus reducing the risk of obese conditions. Lastly, the health provider should advice the restaurant owners to change from preparing higher energy foods to lower energy food with a lower percentage of fats.
