What is obesity?
overweight and obesity is a calculation that takes a person’s weight and height into account to measure body size
Body mass index (BMI) is a calculation that takes a person’s weight and height into account to measure body size.
In adults, obesity is defined as having a BMI of 30.0 or moreTrusted Source, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Obesity is associated with a higher risk for serious diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Obesity is common. The CDC estimates that 42.4 percentTrusted Source of Americans 20 years old and older had obesity in 2017 to 2018.
But BMI isn’t everything. It has some limitations as a metric.
According to the CDCTrusted Source: “Factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, and muscle mass can influence the relationship between BMI and body fat. Also, BMI doesn’t distinguish between excess fat, muscle, or bone mass, nor does it provide any indication of the distribution of fat among individuals.”
Despite these limitations, BMI continues to be widely used as a way to measure body size.
How is obesity classified?
The following classesTrusted Source are used for adults who are at least 20 years old:
| BMI | Class |
|---|---|
| 18.5 or under | underweight |
| 18.5 to <25.0 | “normal” weight |
| 25.0 to <30.0 | overweight |
| 30.0 to <35.0 | class 1 obesity |
| 35.0 to <40.0 | class 2 obesity |
| class 3 obesity (also known as morbid, extreme, or severe obesity) |
What is childhood obesity?
For a doctor to diagnose a child over 2 years old or a teen with obesity, their BMI has to be in the 95th percentileTrusted Source for people of their same age and biological sex:
| Percentile range of BMI | Class |
|---|---|
| >5% | underweight |
| 5% to <85% | “normal” weight |
| 85% to <95% | overweight |
| 95% or over | obesity |
From 2015 to 2016, 18.5 percentTrusted Source (or about 13.7 million) American youth between 2 and 19 years old were considered to have clinical obesity.
What causes obesity?
Eating more calories than you burn in daily activity and exercise — on a long-term basis — can lead to obesity. Over time, these extra calories add up and cause weight gain.
But it’s not always just about calories in and calories out, or having a sedentary lifestyle. While those are indeed causes of obesity, some causes you can’t control.
Common specific causes of obesity include:
- genetics, which can affect how your body processes food into energy and how fat is stored
- growing older, which can lead to less muscle mass and a slower metabolic rate, making it easier to gain weight
- not sleeping enough, which can lead to hormonal changes that make you feel hungrier and crave certain high-calorie foods
- pregnancy, as weight gained during pregnancy may be difficult to lose and might eventually lead to obesity
Certain health conditions can also lead to weight gain, which may lead to obesity. These include:
- polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition that causes an imbalance of female reproductive hormones
- Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare condition present at birth that causes excessive hunger
- Cushing syndrome, a condition caused by having high cortisol levels (the stress hormone) in your system
- hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), a condition in which the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough of certain important hormones
- osteoarthritis (OA) and other conditions that cause pain that may lead to reduced activity
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Change Topic (2-3 sentences): Patients, who suffer from obesity (BMI of more than 30) undertaking nutritional education, diet and exercise in comparison to not taking nutritional education, diet, and exercise, can have improved health outcomes in terms of overall weight loss in a year’s time limit.
| Criteria | Article 1 | Article 2 | Article 3 | Article 4 |
| Author, Journal (Peer-Reviewed), and
Permalink or Working Link to Access Article |
Sahoo, K., Sahoo, B., Choudhury, A. K., Sofi, N. Y., Kumar, R., & Bhadoria, A. S., Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408699/ | Ayer, J., Charakida, M., Deanfield, J. E., & Celermajer, D. S., European Heart Journal, https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/36/22/1371/2293298 | Oelscher, D. M., Butte, N. F., Barlow, S., Vandewater, E. A., Sharma, S. V., Huang, T., … & Oluyomi, A. O., Childhood Obesity., https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/chi.2014.0084 | Xu, S., & Xue, Y., Experiemental and Therapeutic Medicine, https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/etm.2015.2853?text=abstract |
| Article Title and Year Published | Childhood obesity: causes and consequences (2015) | Lifetime risk: childhood obesity and cardiovascular risk (2015) | Incorporating primary and secondary prevention approaches to address childhood obesity prevention and treatment in a low-income, ethnically diverse population: study design and demographic data from the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (TX CORD) study (2015) | Pediatric obesity: Causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment. |
| Research Questions (Qualitative)/Hypothesis (Quantitative), and Purposes/Aim of Study | The purpose of this article was to evaluate the causes and effects of childhood obesity. | This review links literature investigating the effects of childhood obesity to lifetime risks for cardiovascular illnesses. | The researchers hypothesize that a systems oriented approach can work better than a primary prevention approach to reduce the BMI scores of children from low income and ethnically diverse backgrounds. | This article aims at investigating the causes, effects, and effective prevention strategies for childhood obesity. |
| Design (Type of Quantitative, or Type of Qualitative) | Literature Review | Systematic Review | Randomized controlled trial | Systematic Review |
| Setting/Sample | Literatures reviewed were set in different types of settings. | The study includes primary studies that connect childhood obesity to cardiovascular disease. | 576 children between 2 and 12 years in Texas. | Scholarly articles on childhood obesity |
| Methods: Intervention/Instruments | Literature review of various research sources. | Systematic review using a thematic technique. | Quantitative evaluation of the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (TX CORD). | Review of literature |
| Analysis | Includes an analysis of scholarly researches | Articles were analyzed in themes. | SAS mixed methods procedure used to evaluate the collected data | Literature was evaluated in themes. |
| Key Findings | Obesity is caused by children’s diets, activity levels, environmental factors, and family factors. | Obesity in childhood increases chances of having cardiovascular disease in adulthood. | Childhood obesity rates in the low income and ethnically diverse communities exceed national values; a two-tier systems approach is more effective in preventing obesity in these communities than primary prevention techniques. | Childhood obesity has genetic, environmental, and lifestyle causes and can have an influence on the physical and psychological health of the affected individuals. |
| Recommendations | Government intervention to create policies for improving conditions that increase childhood obesity risks. | Authors recommend that future studies investigate the connection between childhood weight issues and increased risk of cardiovascular illnesses. | Concerned parties approach childhood obesity from a systems approach. | Authors recommend various lifestyle changes as a way of reducing the risk of pediatric obesity. |
| Explanation of How the Article Supports EBP/Capstone Project | This article provides sufficient background information on the causes and effects of childhood obesity. | This study supports the argument that childhood obesity affects the cardiovascular system negatively hence emphasizing it as a public health issue. | It demonstrates the differences in childhood obesity rates between communities and suggests techniques for dealing with the inconsistency between communities. | Article creates a clear explanation of the range of causes and effects of obesity in children. It also recommends mitigation strategies to reduce risks and help affected children. |
| Criteria | Article 5 | Article 6 | Article 7 | Article 8 |
| Author, Journal (Peer-Reviewed), and
Permalink or Working Link to Access Article |
Allender, S., Millar, L., Hovmand, P., Bell, C., Moodie, M., Carter, R., … & Orellana, L., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/11/1143/htm | Simmonds, M., Llewellyn, A., Owen, C. G., & Woolacott, N., Obesity Reviews, http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94942/1/Simmonds_et_al_2015_Obesity_Reviews.pdf | GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators., New England Journal of Medicine. https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc5477817 | Davis, R. E., Cole, S. M., Blake, C. E., McKenney-Shubert, S. J., & Peterson, K. E., Apetite, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5533082/ |
| Article Title and Year Published | Whole of systems trial of prevention strategies for childhood obesity: WHO STOPS childhood obesity. (2016) | Predicting adult obesity from childhood obesity: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. (2015) |
Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years. (2016) |
Eat, play, view, sleep: Exploring Mexican American mothers’ perceptions of decision making for four behaviors associated with childhood obesity risk. (2016) |
| Research Questions (Qualitative)/Hypothesis (Quantitative), and Purposes/Aim of Study | This article aims at investigating the impact of community actions towards childhood obesity and strengthen action towards the prevention of obesity in children. | To determine the risk of adulthood obesity from childhood obesity | To determine the trends and disease burden of childhood obesity across the world. | To investigate the effects of parents’ perceptions of obesity risk factors to the children’s weight. |
| Design (Type of Quantitative, or Type of Qualitative) | Randomized Control Trial | Meta-analysis and systematic review | Quantitative research | Quantitative research |
| Setting/Sample | 5050 children from 84 primary schools | 15 cohort studies with 200,777 participants in total | 67.8 million people from 125 countries | 40 Mexican American mothers |
| Methods: Intervention/Instruments | Survey method, trial group subjected to the experiment and both groups examined for impacts. | BMI was the only measure of obesity used in the evaluated articles. | Quantitative analysis | Survey method |
| Analysis | Social network analysis | Meta-analysis | Statistical analysis of the population attributional fraction for each country | Quantitative ratings of the collected survey results |
| Key Findings | Systems science as the best way of identifying and addressing the complex and dynamic causes of obesity. | Obese children have a 70% chance of being obese in adulthood. | Obesity affects a majority of the countries it has doubled in rate since 1980s. | Parents’ perceptions affect decision making about children hence, contributes to their weight |
| Recommendations | Childhood obesity should be approached using a systems method rather than addressing individual cases. | New studies need to investigate the effect of childhood obesity on weight-related morbidities in adulthood. | Childhood obesity be addressed as a global public health problem. | Education of parents is an effective strategy of dealing with obesity in children |
| Explanation of How the Article Supports EBP/Capstone | This contributes to understanding the appropriate approaches of dealing with childhood obesity. | This art |
