Obesity in America

Epidemiology of Obesity
The problem of obesity is one that impacts more than one third of the world’s present population (Hruby & Hu, 2015). In America, more people die from diseases related to obesity than they do from gun violence: approximately one-fourth of deaths in America result from heart disease, for instance (Butler, 2015). Obesity is a major epidemic (Mitchell, Catenacci, Wyatt & Hill, 2011) that is sweeping across the nation and across the entire globe, with obesity rates among children rising between 2 and 5 times in recent decades (Flynn, McNeil et al., 2005).
Obesity can be defined as the occurrence of having excessive body weight with regard to one’s height. Obesity is associated with the increase risk of developing chronic disease morbidity—anything from diabetes to cardiovascular disease to depression, cancer and disability (Hruby & Hu, 2015). The current trends shows that obesity is a major problem. Hruby and Hu (2015) note that “with few restrictions on access to or availability of food, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the USA climbed virtually unmitigated over the last 50 years” (p. 674). Furthermore, more than half the American population is now considered to be overweight or obese (Hruby & Hu, 2015). This fact alone makes obesity and the associated health-risks to be the number one threat to American health.
Current research on the issue of obesity indicates that cultural, economic and social inputs have altered the way that people go about consuming food and exercising: The climate of fast food, pre-packaged food, convenience foods, and environments where outdoor play is limited, where more and more people are sitting for longer and longer periods of time, and where family life is not centered on traditional home-cooked meal-times—all contribute to the factors that spread obesity (Cunningham-Myrie et al., 2015).
The problem of obesity matters and needs to be studied because it is such an obvious and dangerous trend, not just in America but around the world. If people are living in a culture where simple things like diet and exercise are not given the attention they need, it will be very hard for health care providers to practice preventive medicine. Instead, too many practitioners are treating the problem of obesity instead of using approaches like health literacy and preventive care to educate patients on how healthier diet and more exercise can reduce the threat of obesity and reduce the risk of obesity-related diseases from developing.
In order to reach the Healthy People 2020 goals, the problem of obesity has to be addressed. Preventive care should be provided and health literacy should be applied so that education about obesity can begin to reach more and more patients. However, at the same time, personal responsibility has to come into play. Researching the factors that lead people to become obese could facilitate the exercise of preventive care so that obesity stops being a problem that is simply treated and begins being something that is prevented.
Research on the causes of obesity among various populations and in various economic and sociological backgrounds can help raise awareness about the variables that factor into its spread. Since obesity is also impacting more and more children in America, it is worth understanding how diet and exercise are viewed in the homes of children, how children are eating, and how they are recreating. The type of education and environment they are receiving is crucial to understanding the risks and challenges they in particularly face.

References
Butler, J. (2015). Running the ‘Gun Violence’ Numbers. Retrieved from
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/02/john-butler/running-gun-violence-numbers/
Cunningham-Myrie, C., et al. (2015). Associations between neighborhood effects and
physical activity, obesity, and diabetes: The Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey, 2008. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 68(9): 970-978.
Flynn, M., Mcneil, et al. (2005). Reducing obesity and related chronic disease risk in
children and youth: A synthesis of evidence with 'best practice' recommendations. Obesity Reviews, 7(Suppl 1), 7-66.
Hruby, A., & Hu, F. B. (2015). The epidemiology of obesity: a big picture. 
Pharmacoeconomics, 33(7), 673-689.
Mitchell, N., Catenacci, V., Wyatt, H. R., & Hill, J. O. (2011). Obesity: overview of an
epidemic. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 34(4), 717-732.