Negative Influence/Health Outcome of Obesity
Obesity results from unbalanced and needless fat storage in the body. According to an estimation, about 30-35% of Americans are fat, overweight or obese. It is not an untold secret that America is facing obesity as a national health crisis. If the current trend continues, obesity will outdo the menace of smoking in the United States shortly. According to a study, obesity is alone to be blamed for more than 160,000 “surplus” deaths in USA annually (Freedman, 2011).
Americans have inexpensive and sufficient food supply. The availability of edible foods with high caloric density in prepackaged varieties and fast-food restaurants has made it a natural thing for Americans to grab whatever they want, wherever they are. The technologies have save them the pain of labor, and consequently the amount of physical activity that was previously considered an essential part of everyday life has also reduced. Last but not the least, the prevalent ease of using electronic devices at home, school and work has encouraged a deskbound lifestyle (Freedman, 2011).
Unluckily, due to a lack of awareness, most of the Americans do not connect obesity to possible poor health. It is so important to realize and understand that obesity is, in fact, a chronic condition. It is not smart to categorize obesity along with AIDS or Cancer a sensitive, critical, and headline-grabbing disease. Due to this inability to understand, obesity receives less attention in American society. Obesity has sinister effects and complex origins that are not understandable to the common American. Though its treatment is not much encouraging, obesity can be prevented if the American people want an effective treatment.
Economic Healthcare Costs Associated With Obesity
The typical obese person costs the social order more than $7,000 a year in lost productivity and extra health check-ups. Depending on race and sexual category, lifetime additional medicinal expenses single-handedly, for an individual, seventy pounds or more obese amount to as much as $30,000. Thus, obesity has turned out to be the number-one lifestyle-related health concern of the American nation. The generation of the present times in USA is expected to have a shorter life expectancy as compared to the previous generation if appropriate measures are not taken to control the existing obesity epidemic. The health-costs associated with the discussed problem impact the American economy drastically as “medical expenditures attributed to overweight and obesity accounted for 9.1% of total US medical expenditures in 1998 and might have reached 78.5 billion US dollars" (Wang, Beydoun, Liang, Caballero & Kumanyika, 2008).
According to data and figures, almost 80% of type II diabetic patients in the United States are obese. A great deal of the anticipated $19 billion undeviating costs of health care due to this disease is accredited to obesity. Moreover, almost 70% of diseases of the heart and blood vessels diagnosed are associated to obesity. This epidemic accounts for $22.2 billion spent yearly on heart disease. Other than that, about $1.5 billion are spent on an annual basis on the treatment and diagnosis of high blood pressure. Nearly ¼ of American adults are affected by high blood pressure and if a person is obese, his/her chances of having this condition double. Similarly, gallbladder disease and surgery have a close association with obesity and account for about $2.4 billion a year. Lastly, the American citizens spend about $33 billion every year for weight loss programs (Smith, 1999).
Interventions Implemented to Address Obesity
There are many obesity prevention programs running in the country for encouraging American population to take on healthy and nutritional lifestyles for the promotion of a better and healthy lifestyle. Such intervention and prevention programs are held for all the age groups and social classes. Some of the renowned programs funded by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention include Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and Environmental Change (ACHIEVE) Communities, State-Based Obesity Programs, Pioneering Healthier Communities (PHC), U.S. State and Territorial Health Departments Collaborative for Chronic Diseases, and Strategic Alliance for Health (SAH) Communities. Moreover, CATCH is one of the most famous US intervention programs that have proven to be a cost-effective and excellent program for the prevention of childhood obesity in the country. This intervention program has been successful in receiving “state, national, and international recognition for being one of the most comprehensive and ambitious approaches to targeting physical education, food services, classroom curriculum, and families through a coordinated school health program” (“CATCH”).
In the similar manner, both junk-food tax and traffic-light nutrition labeling are two very important interventions that have great cost-effectiveness for the prevention of obesity (Sacks, Veerman, Moodie & Swinburn, 2010).
Cost-effectiveness of the Interventions
The cost-effectiveness of the obesity intervention programs is great as people are encouraged to avoid taking in unhealthy lifestyles. Such programs have made it possible for the nation to recognize the hazards of obesity and also save billions of dollars spent in the treatment and diagnosis of obesity-related problems and diseases. As obesity has increased, the possibilities for quite a few chronic degenerative diseases have also increased. The intervention programs have helped to make weight loss a necessity to those at risk. This has also proved as a cost-effective strategy. The policy makers have made people understand that the obesity is a threat to the betterment and future wellbeing of American nation. Therefore, they have promoted clever, balanced, cost-effective, and nutritionally sound methods for the obesity control in the country. Similarly, interventions like taxes on junk foods and traffic-light nutrition labeling are population-wide and based on several policies. This is the reason these interventions have the propensity to provide American people the value for their as measures for obesity prevention. For instance, nutrition labeling is a significant component to help people make choices to consume healthy foods. Consequently, such healthy choices decrease the cost related to diagnosis and treatment of obesity-related diseases. Similarly, when taxes are imposed on unhealthy foods, people are likely to make the consumption of such foods relatively less (Sacks, Veerman, Moodie & Swinburn, 2010).
Recommendations to Alleviate Obesity
People should be given awareness regarding the importance of nutrition while considering weight reduction. Secondly, the obese individual must be encouraged to make intelligent food choices that could facilitate a reasonable switch from weight loss to maintenance. Active participation from the general American public is also the need of the time. Obesity epidemic is lessening the American nation's wallet and is also upsetting the physical condition and wellness of millions of citizens. If this issue is left unattended, the country’s health will be undermined, and productivity would be reduced, and economic security would be threatened. The diseases related to obesity account for almost 10% of medical spending in the country.
References
CATCH. (n.d.). CatchUSA. Retrieved June 4, 2014, from http://catchusa.org/documents/catch%20brochures/CATCH%202013%20Annual%20pages.pdf
Freedman, D. H. (2011, February). How to Fix the Obesity Crisis. Scientific American, 01, 40-47.
Sacks, G., Veerman, J. L., Moodie, M., & Swinburn, B. (2010). ‘Traffic-light’ Nutrition Labelling And ‘junk-food’ Tax: A Modelled Comparison Of Cost-effectiveness For Obesity Prevention.International Journal of Obesity, 35, 1001-1009. Retrieved June 6, 2014, from http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30032370/sacks-trafficlight-2010.pdf
Smith, J. C. (1999). Understanding Childhood Obesity. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Wang, Y., Beydoun, M. A., Liang, L., Caballero, B., & Kumanyika, S. K. (2008). Will All Americans Become Overweight Or Obese? Estimating The Progression And Cost Of The US Obesity Epidemic. Obesity,16(10), 2323-2330.
