User:Savannahcallie/Obesity and the environment

Obesity and the environment aims to look at the different environmental factors that have been determined by researchers to cause and perpetuate obesity. In 1994 in the United States, the percentage of the adult population that was obese was much lower than it is today. In 1994 the percentage of the population in every state that was obese was less than 20%, but by 2008, only one state still had a percentage obese below 20%, six states had a percentage obese of more than 30% while the rest of the states ranged between 20% and 30%. In 2016, the number of obese people reached an all-time high of about 93 million, which was up 33 percent from 2008 according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The increase in obesity rates has been labeled an epidemic which is concerning because it could be a bad reflection to our children. This may be even more concerning for children and teens who have seen their rate of obesity go up to 18.5%, which is triple the rate in 1980. If current trends continue, as many as 57% of them will end up obese by the time, they reach the age of 35. This will put them at higher risk for other health conditions such as, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Family History also has an effect on obesity in a family which can lead to higher risk. In response, both federal and local officials have instituted policies to combat obesity as well as promote healthy eating, such as: The Farm Bill, National School Lunch Act and Child Nutrition Act, as well as The Healthy Kid Act. The food system has shown to have a major effect on obesity such as processed foods, agricultural foods, and even marketing. Another contribute to this ongoing epidemic is physical inactivity and it is one of the primary causes of obesity. The environment such as increased air solution and ozone has shown to be associated with physical inactivity. The data collected by Christina L. Gray et al. present that the obesity in areas with the best air quality compared to the worst air equality, increases by %30 of the over 3,000 countries tested (Gray et al). Obesity has also been linked to sociodemographic factors which are your social status and what area of the united states you are located in or neighborhood. This has been linked because based on where you live you may not have access to parks or your income may not allow you to pay for gym memberships.

Bibliography

Gray, Christine L., et al. “The Association between Physical Inactivity and Obesity Is Modified by Five Domains of Environmental Quality in U.S. Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.” PLOS ONE, edited by Adewale L. Oyeyemi, vol. 13, no. 8, Aug. 2018, p. e0203301. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0203301.

Makar, Michael, et al. “The Impact of Obesity on Mortality and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Acute Diverticulitis in the United States.” Journal of Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases, Feb. 2021. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.15403/jgld-2988.

Yarnoff, Benjamin O., et al. “Modeling the Impact of Obesity on the Lifetime Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease in the United States Using Updated Estimates of GFR Progression from the CRIC Study.” PLOS ONE, edited by Tatsuo Shimosawa, vol. 13, no. 10, Oct. 2018, p. e0205530. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0205530.