Obesity in children and increased health care use

¶ … Hering, Pritsker, Gonchar, & Pilar (2009), the statistical procedure used examined students who were from Tirat HaCarmel, Israel. These students were studied at the town's health and child care center. Non-obese children were the control group, and they were matched up with obese children who were also studied. The match-ups included both gender and age. Then, children were divided even further into specific groups by age. These were 4-7 years, 8-11 years, and 12-18 years (Hering, et al., 2009). Four different criteria were used over a period of two years in order to get results that were statistically significant. These criteria were visits to the emergency department, visits to the clinic, medication usage, and whether the child was hospitalized (Hering, et al., 2009).

The study reached the conclusions that there were more than 4000 children treated at the care center, and there were 363 children who were obese and who were matched to 382 children out of the control group (Hering, et al., 2009). The obese children were at the clinic significantly more often (4942 vs. 4058) (Hering, et al., 2009). They also had more hospitalizations (67 vs. 34), and stayed in the hospital much longer (207 vs. 79 days) (Hering, et al., 2009). Additionally, the obese children were on more medications than the non-obese children (5945 vs. 4638) (Hering, et al., 2009). Because that was seen, the researchers concluded that obesity in children is definitely associated with a higher use of the health care system and a rise in both time and costs where healthcare is concerned. Naturally, this is a serious issue for these children, their parents, and the healthcare community, along with the community at large. Clear implications are seen from this study, both for public health and insurance sectors that are being hit hard by the childhood obesity epidemic (Hering, et al., 2009). Until childhood obesity is brought under control, healthcare costs will continue to rise.

The conclusions for this study are appropriate, because the study clearly shows that children who are obese take more medications, spend more time in the hospital more frequently and go to the clinic for assistance more often than children who are not obese. While this is a drain on the healthcare system financially, it also takes up a lot of time that could have been used to treat other people who also needed the healthcare (Hering, et al., 2009). When people have to wait too long to see a doctor or when doctors and clinics and hospitals are crowded and overbooked, the risk to those people rises. That is an unfortunate issue, and can be very hard to handle in the hearts and minds of individuals. At the same time, however, it is unfair to expect children to bear the brunt of the anger and upset over the obesity epidemic, because children are generally a product of their environments (Hering, et al., 2009). In other words, it is the environment that must be changed to avoid continuing high levels of childhood obesity in the future.

The findings are statistically significant because individuals who are obese as children are spending more time in the hospital and doctors' offices. Other studies have shown that obese adults follow these same patterns of using the healthcare system more than their non-obese counterparts (Hering, et al., 2009). While there are certainly exceptions to this rule, it is counterintuitive to assume that children who are obese will grow into healthy, non-obese adults without some type of intervention or adjustments being made. It is often the education of the parents that is lacking when it comes to good, proper nutrition (Hering, et al., 2009). Because that is the case, the parents struggle to help their children lose weight. In turn, the children do not understand how to lose weight properly, so they fail to undertake the task on their own. Naturally this is a serious concern that belongs not only to the people of Israel, where the study was conducted, but to people in all countries.

The determination of statistical significance is not a snap judgment, and - while it is an opinion - has been considered and informed by the information found within the confines of the study. If only a few more children who were obese had been to the clinic or admitted to the hospital, the researcher would be willing to concede that it might have simply been an anomaly. However, it is clear that the number of times obese children needed some type of medical care during the study period was much larger than the number of times non-obese children needed care (despite the fact that the pool of obese children was actually smaller than the pool of non-obese children) (Hering, et al., 2009). Given the smaller number of children who were obese, and the much higher number of times these obese children utilized medical care, it is clear that obese children use medical care at a higher and more consistent rate than children who are not obese. The study did not include children classified as overweight, however, which is not the same as children who are obese (Hering, et al., 2009).