Summary
Childhood obesity has been underrated as its effects are undermined. Childhood obesity is associated with gene inheritance and the general deity of the child. Genetic makeup that contains information about obesity can be passed from a parent to a child. Obesity occurs when a child consumes a lot of calories than those being burnt. A report published by Xu, and Xue (2016), indicate that childhood obesity may hinder the body from responding to insulin, exposing the child to type 2 diabetes. There are circumstances whereby the environment and the corresponding social class in which a child is raised play a major role in determining a child’s health condition and feeding habits.
The social class and the general surroundings in which a child is raised play a major role in the child’s health conditions and feeding habits; however, it does take long before an overweight child advances to being obese.
Economic Principle and Indicators
The aspect of macroeconomics undermines the government’s effort by dictating a diversion of public funds into fighting the childhood obesity epidemic. Under the aspect of microeconomics, the future labor market is at stake. Childhood obesity persists to old age, and the victims tend to think and act slow.
The future labor will compose individuals who provide delayed services due to obesity conditions. There is a threat of a future increase in the cases of seeking leave which will lower the output by increasing the production cost. The epidemic increases the cost of living since parents incur an extra cost of treating their obese children (Morales et al., 2019).
Childhood obesity persists to old age, and the victims tend to think and act slow.
Economic Impact
Either way, there will be a dire consequence, and both the manufacturing fraternity and the people’s daily living standards will be affected. Employees will be rendered jobless once the government shuts down industries that produce substandard products. The government is an active stakeholder in the health sector and will decide to cut the aggressive distribution channels to the states with lenient food production and distribution policies (Iguacel et al., 2021).
The industries will cut the employees’ salaries to help fund their production activities. The action will lead to poor living standers of the employees, which may trigger an ongoing strike, affecting the country’s general economy.
As a government directive to shut down companies that produce substandard high caloric products to curb childhood obesity, many employees will lose their jobs. If the government decides to impose high taxes on these companies, the management may cut the employees’ salaries. The employees may react to this step by organizing strikes to resist the action of reducing their wages
In the case where industries will be highly taxed to control the supply of high caloric foodstuffs to children, the industries will respond, and the employee will feel the effect.
Aspect of Socioeconomic Factor on Childhood Obesity
The study provides a solid representation of the relationship between social disparity and healthy. Because of the poverty levels, low-income families cannot acquire healthy keeping equipment as compared to the rich households who have their houses equipped with indoor gyms that help burn down extra calories, which might lead to childhood obesity.
Children born in low-income families tend to be obese compared to those from rich families. Vazquez, and Cubbin (2020), conducted research that concluded that 4 out of 10 children who live below the poverty line become obese. Childhood obesity has been seen to vary from different angles of social settings. Race, ethnicity, and culture play a significant part in the analysis of child obesity. African Americans are more prone to obesity than whites. However, the primary reason for such a discrepancy is due to gene inheritance and deity. Girl gender in the African American society is more affected as compared to the boy gender. Children usually like sugary snacks; however, girls tend to be more addicted to high caloric foods than boys.
Healthcare Organizations Affected
The US government incurs a substantial cost of equivalently 14 billion annually in the war against childhood obesity. The US government has adopted special programs that assist parents in deciding daily meals for children. The NGOs have started installing public gyms and physical fitness programs for children in conjunction with well-wishers.
Economic and Legal landscape
Equally, the legal requirement of the ministry of agriculture on the MyPlate initiative is non-executable in low-income families. Maintaining a balanced diet for these families who depend on two meals a day is quite difficult. Sharma (2020) argues that the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2019 allows the government to use public funds to provide psychological and physical treatment to affected children. The policy on using public funds to fight child obesity has created a public misunderstanding as other citizens feel it is parental negligence and should seek government intervention. The epidemic of childhood obesity has become expensive since treating opportunistic complications like difficulty in breathing, type 2 diabetes and reduced rate of response require costly medication.
Proposed Policy
Operational Strategy
Those that produce and distribute products whose main target audience are children should be imposed with higher taxes which can then be channeled into funding child obesity-related activities (Morales et al.,2019).. Before purchasing children’s food, parents should seek advice from a nutritionist to prevent high caloric meals.
Role Players
They should provide well-drawn programs to these families who clearly state what kind of food the children need to eat and the kind of lifestyle they need to live to prevent obesity. Gene inheritance is difficult to avoid in most families seeking to conceive children naturally. However, with In vitro fertilization, scientists can edit out genes that are likely to cause obesity.
The consumption of high caloric meals by children is directly associated with the availability of these foodstuffs. The nutrition of such snacks is limited and may not serve the required growth nutrients children need.
Therefore, there is a need for the government to ban any aggressive sweet distribution company from Utah.
Improving American Healthcare System
The health sector was the one affected more. With the proposed strategy, the health care quality will improve since there will be reduced cases of child obesity. Instead of taking children to hospitals, parents will seek nutritional guidance. Parents will seek to prevent their children from being obese, and therefore, it will reduce the anticipated cost they are likely to pay if their children become obese.
Either way, many stakeholders will have the chance to effectively restore good health to the children of the U.S. It will assist the parents in properly monitoring their children. There are many instances where parents often get depressed from depression due to the financial strain they are subjected to due to obesity. The proposed policy will allow them to properly manage their financial and will assist in effectively programming their expenditure.
According to Iguacel et al. (2021), in 2020, a total of 39 million obese children were estimated to be under the age of 5 years.
Socioeconomic factor
By controlling the distribution in this city, it is possible to reduce cases of childhood obesity. Most companies producing sweets target low-income households since their consumption is not based on diet rather on the availability of the foodstuff. Therefore, the government should impose high taxes in those areas to discourage sales.
Socioeconomic Barriers
Geographical Location
The grandparents usually have those notions of associating heavy bodies with outstanding nutrition in that they opt to feed grandchildren, continuously undermining the importance of a well-balanced diet.. Unless they are taught the benefit of administering a balanced diet to children, the issue of child obesity may persist.
According to An et al. (2020), most parents utilize grandparent childcare in rural areas away from the urban centers, and their children turn out to be obese compared to those in the urban areas.
Psychographic factors
The discrepancy can result from eating habits in that the children raised in poverty eat what is available, not necessarily following a well-balanced diet like those from rich families (Weihrauch-Blüher & Wiegand 2018). The gyms tend to keep them fit away from accumulating large amounts of sugars and fats. A comparison of childhood obesity between rich and poor households indicates interesting statistics.
Socioeconomic Supports
Geographical Location
The government should also strongly prohibit the supply of high caloric foodstuffs to rural areas. Store owners who will be found selling prohibited snacks to underage children should be confronted, and sun actions should be taken against them. Initiatives aiming at encouraging the consumption of locally grown foodstuffs should be initiated.
Psychographic factors
These lessons should be mandatory for every student every day to ensure their physical fitness is well managed to reduce cases of childhood obesity. With the help of teachers, parents, and well-wishers, obese children should be identified and drawn into programs that will assist in reversing their obesity status. More researches should be conducted on childhood obesity to help identify long-term strategies that will help reduce cases of childhood obesity.
Each student should be taught the dangers of eating junky foods that contain huge amounts of fats and calories (Weihrauch-Blüher & Wiegand 2018).
Children’s eating habits in a rural setting should be well monitored to ensure a balanced diet. The government and its corresponding active stakeholders in the health department should pay close attention to the general manufacturing industries. The government and its corresponding active stakeholders in the health department should pay close attention to the general manufacturing industries.
Value Position
The policy focuses on discouraging children from consuming unhealthy products that are made available by incompetent entities.
The proposed policy will assist the government in controlling the flow of substandard products from incompetent manufacturers.
By reducing the timely supply of caloric foods to children through heavy taxes, there will be a controlled intake of such food, mostly in children. Therefore, parents will shift to cheap alternatives. Also, by prohibiting and shutting down companies that do not meet the required standards, unhealthy snacks and high caloric supplies will be brought to control.
References
An, R., Xiang, X., Xu, N., & Shen, J. (2020). Influence of grandparental child care on childhood obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Childhood Obesity, 16(3), 141-153. Web.
Iacobucci, G. (2019). Government has “moral duty” to act on Child Obesity, says outgoing chief medical officer. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 367. DOI:10.1136/bmj.l5945
Iguacel, I., Gasch-Gallen, A., Ayala-Marin, A. M., De Miguel-Etayo, P., & Moreno, L. A. (2021). Social vulnerabilities as risk factor of childhood obesity development and their role in prevention programs. International Journal of Obesity, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 1-11. Web.
Lee, E. Y., & Yoon, K. H. (2018). Epidemic obesity in children and adolescents: Risk factors and prevention. Frontiers of Medicine, 12(6), 658-666. Web.
Morales Camacho, W. J., Molina Díaz, J. M., Plata Ortiz, S., Plata Ortiz, J. E., Morales Camacho, M. A., & Calderón, B. P. (2019). Childhood obesity: aetiology, comorbidities, and treatment. Diabetes/metabolism research and reviews, vol. 35 no. 8. Web.
Sharma, P. (2020)The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2019. Web.
Vazquez, C. E., & Cubbin, C. (2020). Socioeconomic status and Childhood Obesity: A review of literature from the past decade to inform intervention research. Current Obesity Reports, pp. 1-9. Web.
Weihrauch-Blüher, S., & Wiegand, S. (2018). Risk factors and implications of childhood obesity. Current Obesity Reports, 7(4), 254-259. Web.