Obesity – Extremely Fast Rising Public Health Problem In The United States

Obesity is currently considered the most significant public health problem in the United States that continues to rise at high levels in our world today. Unfortunately, with the struggles to manage obesity once recognized, there is still not a long-term preventative policy that exists. The Social-Ecological Model (SEM), attributed to Urie Brofenbrenner, created a versatile framework that displays that there’s different yet connected components which affect human behavior. For my chronic disease, obesity, the model can benefit health professionals understand multiple degrees of influence that structures a person’s food and lifestyle choices such as exercise. The SEM model also gives a visual depiction to address influences and aid effective prevention and reduction programs; the five levels of the SEM used in the model are individual, interpersonal, organizational, community and policy.

According to the Nutrition and Physical Activity Program, using Brofenbrenner’s five levels of socioecological model is the best way to address preventative measures, however, a critical understanding of each level is essential to examine additionally the query of successful behavior change. The model also functions to prompt that individual understanding is not adequate enough for behavior change; higher amount of knowledge, training abilities, and constructing a positive atmosphere are wholly significant factors of behavior change. Since the Social Ecological Model is broad in extent, each level corresponds with other stages. This indicates how it’s possible that a public health group can face difficulties to advance healthy lifestyle choices and habits in a particular community if it does not consider how other influences fall through the behavior of the community as a whole.

According to Obesity Action Coalition, obesity is a disorder that is correlated with having an overload of body fat. It is classified of having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher. Three decades ago, the obesity rate for adults was 15%. Today, that rate has more than doubled to 35%. At the same time, obesity results from people consuming more calories than their bodies burn. Calories in adults, calories consumed have increased from 1,996 to 2,234 a day. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Furthermore, obesity is related to other health problems that have a major financial impact in our country’s healthcare system and in the individual. In the United States, the assessed annual healthcare costs of obesity-related illness is 190.2 billion; this is nearly 21% of annual medical expenditure in our healthcare system. People didn’t decide to become overweight. Their weight gain is a consequence of complicated changes in our environment where food is more readily available and opportunities for physical activity are lacking. One contributing factor is that the way we eat has changed over the last 50 years. Americans are eating more processed foods and eating out a lot more frequently.