Nursing Issues

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are global problems, affecting both rich and poor nations. Despite the condition’s association with wealthy individuals, it is not usually the case at all times. The key reason for conducting the study was to assess the dominance of the obese and overweight status as has been classified by the International Task Force (IOTF) as well as World Health Organization. The research work was carried out among school-going children in the Hyderabad region of India. It was also expected to identify factors that associated with these two conditions. Such factors included parental care, participation in outdoor activities, and financial wellbeing of the family among others. The investigations involved both institutional as well as cross-sectional approaches or studies where a stratified cluster method of sampling was put in application. The children involved were adolescents aged between twelve and seventeen years. Further, the exercise was to engage both females and males from Hyderabad region.

Introduction

Obesity quickly emerges as a public health problem globally, and it has effects in all ages as well as both genders, male and female. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity as well as overweight is considered to be abnormal accumulation of fat in the body that impairs the health of an individual. An estimation as of the year 2014 indicates that the number of adults above 18 years of age who were obese amounted to 1.9 billion people. Further, about 200 million school children are regarded as being overweight worldwide. The behavioral characteristics that associate with obesity starts to show up at the time of childhood, thought they might be as well prevalent during the adolescence period. The chief purpose of the research work was the identification of behavioral correlation of overweight among adolescent students in Hyderabad India.

The study involved two schools where 114 students participated in it with 57 cases and 57 controls of obesity being recorded from where ages in both sexes were matched. From the study, it was expected to reveal whether decreasing physical outdoor activities contributed to increasing cases of obese children. Such outdoor activities included games participation, swimming, walking among others, that had been replaced by motorized conveyance to school as well as watching television for hours.

Additionally, the study aimed to establish if consuming too much junk foods as well as irregular eating habits contributed to gaining excessive weight among the adolescents. Further, the research sought to answer the question as to the effects of a working absent mother on a child’s health. In conclusion, it was revealed that overweight students consumed too much junk food, had irregular food-taking plan, and diet supervision by their guardians remained at its minimum. Again, children whose mothers worked seemed to suffer a high rate of obesity as compared to their peers.

Evaluation of Research Methods

From the article, it is evident of the authors have made use of literature review. For example, data has been collected from reports such as those of the World Health Organization. The report has been used to provide details and estimates of the obese population. Further, previous investigations and study reports are also used in reviewing the findings and conclusions of the earlier researchers on the same topic. Such reports include Ramachandran and his group work that focused on overweight in urban children in India’s adolescent school goers, prepared in 2002.

Another work studied was done by Mohan B. and other fellow authors, whose core focus was on the pervasiveness of continued hypertension as a well as obesity. The condition was observable to both rural and urban groups of school children in Ludhiana in India. Moreover, extra information was collected from an International Association mandated to study obesity. The study considered the condition as an epidemic that had gone global.

Over time, overweight and obesity have become global epidemic. Those who have the condition are at high risk of developing other health complications such as hypertension, respiratory problems as well as diabetes among others. The most worrying fact about the state is the rate at which it spreads among the young generation. As more young people adopt a new lifestyle, the number of those who get overweight keeps skyrocketing.

Relevance of the Study in the Current World

Obesity as condition is encouraged by practices such as watching television or playing computer games for longer hours. In the current times, it is believed that one out of five children is obese. The rate continues to grow as the children’s age goes up. Persistence of this state can lead to health complications that would eventually lead to death. For example, a study in the USA estimates that about 300,000 people die annually from overweight and obesity related issues.

During the study, an experimental research type was used. The study involved students from two schools from the eighth to the tenth classes. The identification of the overweight and obese cases had guidance from the cut-offs that had international acceptance for both gender and age. The controls had been group-marched by age with a variation of plus or minus one. The method used during sampling was intended to reduce the margin of errors within different parameters being provided as follows. In regards to the occurrence of the risk, the factor among controls was at 10%, within the considered cases.

On its part, the significance level being 5%, while the odds ratio emerged as four from a sample size of 114. Data compilation used Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and its analysis performed by use of the SPSS software. For the involved students, permission was first sought from their parents. The research work remained unbiased in relation to the gender of the participants. The two sexes were given similar attention throughout the study. However, the age bracket covered may not be a full representation of the target population. Further, a sample collected from only two schools may not be representative enough to researching obese cases among the adolescents.

The significance of obesity as well as its risks for public health has a positive identity. The study concludes with the notion that it is vital to identify genetic, demographic, metabolic as well as behavioral factors that are the primary cause of overweight or obesity. In relation to that, it is hence urged that a larger sample size is the necessary provision of an efficient and highly accurate result. Further, the study recognizes that behavioral patterns leading to obesity commence their development at a young age and carry on to the old age if not restricted early enough. The author recommends that health experts, school authorities as well as educationists need to come together and relay critical health and diet information. The presentation of information to both students and their parents is done with an aim of helping them adopt healthier eating habits. Those practices include proper body exercise activities as well as eating healthier diets and at regular timeframes.

Although the research findings are commendable, there is every need to improve the study techniques. For example, the sample size was too small as compared to the population it sought to represent. The global adolescent population is huge and runs into hundreds of millions. A study with a sample of 114 students is far much below proper representation. For such a study considering the adolescent all over the world, it ought to have included ten thousand individuals. Again, the sample was only collected from almost the same area, which would lead to qualitative errors.

In situations where the research is conducted in one country means that it is neither representative of the region nor the world. Information that represents a global population should cover all the continents as well as different countries in that particular region. Further, the study ought to focus on other causes of obesity and the condition’s relation to other ailments. However, the writers work has been clear with data properly analyzed. Again, the used language of explanation is understandable and straight to the point. The article has no contradictions and the evidence to explanation is properly recorded.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is notable that the writer’s choice of topic is beneficial to dealing with obesity cases as well as their complications. Obesity has become one of the top epidemics that threaten the lives of young people owing to the changes in life style. In the modern world, the nature of foods consumed has drastically reduced in nutritional value, and food can increase fat content in the body. Most of these junky foods are sugary products and are liked for their sweetness. Secondly, as changes in technology continue to increase and more people join the middle income class, the number of individuals avoiding the physical outdoor activities continues to rise. That occurs mainly because the current generation of young people is addicted to technological life style such as playing computer games, use of social media as well as watching television for hours. That effectively makes them dormant and reduces body activity, which leads to the failure to burn excessive body fats.