Childhood obesity is a serious disease that affects children and adolescents. Childhood obesity occurs when a child has a much higher weight in the normal weight given his age and size. Childhood obesity leads to many serious diseases that was once only known to occur in adulthood (such as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol). Childhood obesity not only causes these mad medical conditions, it also hits socially to the kids in the shape of bad self-esteem and depression.
Childhood obesity has gained a lot of attention worldwide in recent years as the problem is on the rise globally. World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that one in ten children worldwide was overweight or more than 22 million children under the age of five. Currently United States of America is leading in the reported figures for child hood obesity. A 1980 study by the US Surgeon General found that the number of American children who were overweight had more than doubled, and tripled for adolescents, or an estimated 9 million youngsters. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers obesity to be one of the ten causes of preventable deaths.
Overweight and obesity, which is characterized as abnormal or excessive fat accumulations in the body, is measured by using the Body Mass Index (BMI) which is a simple index of height for weight. According to BMI Overweight is equal to or more than 25, and obesity as a BMI equal to or more than 30, providing a benchmark for individual assessment.
Classes | Body Mass Index (BMI) |
Underweight | Less than18.5kg/m2 |
Normal | 18.5 – 24.9 |
Overweight | 25 – 29.9 |
Obesity 1 | 20 – 34.9 |
Obesity 2 | 34.9 – 39.9 |
Morbid Obesity | 40 |
0 comments:
Post a Comment