Health
Title: Questions about Childhood Obesity
Information: Childhood Obesity Obesity has become the most common nutritional disease in the United States. With the percentage of overweight and obese kids nearly tripling in the last 30 years, childhood obesity has become an epidemic. This epidemic is not limited to the United States; it is all over the world. There are many excellent web sites where you can find information about childhood obesity, its causes, prevention and health risks. Here are some frequently asked questions about childhood obesity and how to find the answers. What is the definition of obesity and how does it differ from overweight? Go to www.google.com and type definition obesity overweight in the search box. • Click on the hit titled Statistics Related to Overweight and Obesity. The URL ishttp://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/nutrit/pubs/statobes.htm. This site is from the National Institutes of Health. Click on the first item in the bulleted list, *What are obesity and overweight? *The information will give you a good definition of obesity and overweight. Go back to your list of hits and scroll to the second page. Click on the hit titled Ask NOAH About Obesity and Weight Control,http://www.noah-health.org/english/wellness/healthyliving/ weight.html. This great site is from New York State. Why are there so many obese children? Go to www.google.com and type childhood obesity in the search box. Check out the hit from the American Obesity Association. The URL ishttp://www.obesity.org/subs/childhood/ Read the introduction about childhood obesity. After this paragraph is a bulleted list of information. Click on Causes. Another good web site is from the National Institutes of Health (NIH ) and is titled NIH News: The NIH Word on Health. The URL ishttp://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/jun2002/childhoodobesity.htm This site does a great job of listing all the causes of childhood obesity. Go back to www.google.com and type "epidemic of childhood obesity" in the search box. Be sure to enclose the phrase in quotes. The hit titled Childhood Obesity from the Alabama Cooperative Extension. It has a great overview of the causes and effects of childhood obesity. The URL ishttp://www.aces.edu/issues/obesity/ Underneath Overview is a source titled Childhood Obesity: Causes and Prevention. Go back to www.google.com again and type, "factors contributing to obesity", in the search box. Once again, be sure to enclose the phrase in quotes. The hit titled Contributing Factors is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC. It is a U.S. government agency and has an enormous amount of up to date information on health issues. The URL ishttp://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/contributing_factors.htm This site has a very good overview of the various causes of obesity in children and adults. As you are taking a look at the information on this web site, you will see that there is a link to the U.S. Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity. Click on it. The URL ishttp://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/ You will see a link to a Fact Sheet on Overweight in Children and Adolescents. What health problems affect obese children? Obese children are at high risk of developing the same health problems as obese adults. Many of these problems can be life threatening. The following web sites will help you find information on the types of health problems that affect obese kids. Go to www.google.com and type obesity health consequences in the search box. Look at the hit titled Overweight and Obesity Fact Sheet: Health Consequences,http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/calltoaction/fact_consequences.htm This report is from the Surgeon General of the U.S. Government and has a comprehensive list of the health risks of being obese. Another good hit is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is titled Health Consequences. The URL ishttp://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/consequences.htm This government web site also has a comprehensive list of health risks for obese adults and children. Go back to www.google.com and type childhood obesity in the search box. Check out the hit from the American Obesity Association. The URL ishttp://www.obesity.org/subs/childhood/ Read the introduction about childhood obesity. After this paragraph is a bulleted list of information. Click on Health Risks, Diagnosis and Treatment. This section gives a brief overview of health problems. Click on the links for Obesity in Youth and Children and Diabetes to get more detailed information. Another good hit is from the National Institutes of Health (NIH ) and is titled NIH News: The NIH Word on Health. The URL ishttp://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/jun2002/childhoodobesity.htm This site has good information on health risks. Go back to www.google.com and type health consequences of childhood obesity in the search box. Look at the hit from the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools that is titled School Health Issues. The URL ishttp://www.healthinschools.org/sh/obfs2.asp The site has a comprehensive list of obesity-related health problems along with definitions of each one. How can you prevent kids from becoming obese? Once you are overweight or obese, there aren't any easy ways to lose weight. How can parents prevent their kids from becoming obese? There are lots of web sites with good ideas. Go to www.google.com and type childhood obesity in the search box. Check out the hit from the American Obesity Association. The URL ishttp://www.obesity.org/subs/childhood/ Below the introductory paragraph is a bulleted list of information. Click on Prevention. This section has information about how parents can teach healthy behaviors to their children. There are related links that you can click on to get more information. Another good hit is from the National Institutes of Health (NIH ) and is titled NIH News: The NIH Word on Health. The URL ishttp://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/jun2002/childhoodobesity.htm This site has good information on how families and schools can encourage healthy lifestyle behaviors. Go back to www.google.com and type overweight children adolescents in the search box. The first hit is titled Overweight and Obesity Fact Sheet and is from the U.S. Surgeon General's office. The URL ishttp://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/calltoaction/fact_adolescents.htm This site has suggestions for healthy eating and for physical activity. Once again, go to www.google.com and type school health issues in the search box. The second hit is titled School Health Issues: Obesity & Nutrition,http://www.healthinschools.org/sh/obesity.asp. This site has a wealth of information on keeping children healthy. You will find information on nutrition and physical exercise. Go to www.google.com again and type forming good habits children. The first hit is an interesting site from Purdue University,http://www.ces.purdue.edu/nutrition/childobesity/intro2.html The site has lots of information on forming good habits in children to avoid obesity. The information is creatively organized in booklet form; you click on the arrow at the bottom of the page to advance to the next page. Does childhood obesity affect the cost of health insurance in the United States? Obese children are at risk of developing many serious health problems, especially if they become obese adults. This will have enormous implications for the costs of health care in the United States. Here are a few websites that will give you more specific information about this issue. Go to www.google.com and type impact obesity "health care costs" in the search box. Connecting the Dots/HSR Impact Obesity is a site that has some very interesting statistics on the impact of obesity on health care costs. The URL ishttp://www.academyhealth.org/connectingthedots/obesity.pdf Another excellent site comes from the Research Triangle in North Carolina and is titled Researchers Estimate States Spend Billions in Medical Costs. The URL ishttp://www.rti.org/page.cfm?objectid=4CDB8DC2-6720-4FBF-806A064BB32DD00B This site has recent statistics on the cost and impact of obesity on health care costs. There are many, many more sources besides the web sites listed above. An additional Internet source to check out is the Librarians' Index to the Internet,http://lii.org/ Click on Health and Medicine and then type obesity in the search box. You will find a long list of web sites selected by librarians. A great place to begin or continue your research is at your public library or your school library. Start with a general encyclopedia such as The World Book Encyclopedia. It has an excellent article on "Weight Control". Diet, exercise and childhood obesity have recently been in many news magazines, such as Newsweek and Time. Also, the impact of childhood obesity on health care costs is a very important current issue that has been the topic of articles in these news magazines plus newspapers such as USA Today. You will also find recent news articles on Type 2 Diabetes, one of the consequences of childhood obesity. Your librarian can help you locate the appropriate issues. Your librarian can also help you locate books on diet, nutrition and health. A very good book source is The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine and most high school and public libraries should have this set. M.C.* *This FAQ is reproduced with permission of the VRD Learning Resource Center,http://vrd.askvrd.org/index.asp
Category: Health