Obesity is one of the major problems the world is facing today. It is a condition where a person has accumulated so much body fat, posing a health risk to the individual. In 2012, it was found out that more than a third of children and adolescents were either overweight or obese. This is a cause for alarm for the World Health Organization (WHO), and prompted it to spend more time to brainstorm about more efficient ways to battle the epidemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that obesity among children have doubled in the past 30 years. There are approximately 7% of children between the ages 6 and 11 years old who are obese in the 1980s.
In a 2012 survey, it was discovered that the number rose dramatically to 18% among this age group. In the same case, the number spoke for adolescents (ages between 12-19 years old), from 5% in the 1980s to 21% in 2012.
Just recently, SBS.com reported that World Health Organization (WHO) is alarmed at the statistics revealing that there are approximately 41 million children under the age of 5 years old who are suffering from obesity.
The number of children who are obese has risen by 10 million since the 90s. According to WHO, there are surprisingly more overweight and obese children in low- and middle- income countries than those in countries that generate more money.
The WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (ECHO) reported that in progressing countries, there are more than 15.5 million children who are overweight in 2014 as compared to only 7.5 million in 1990. They concluded that the driving factors for this are the globalization and the urbanization of the said places.
According to Yahoo Parenting, Sania Nishtar, ECHO co-chair released a statement stating that being overweight and obesity has a huge impact in the quality of a child's life." Having this condition will have physical, psychological, and health consequences on them," she said. "Obesity can impact a child's educational attainment, too. The likelihood that they will remain obese into adulthood, poses major health and economic consequences for them, their families and society as a whole." She added.
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