evaluates the causes and effects of childhood obesity
Literature Review14
Childhood obesity is one of the leading public health issues facing the United States of America. This problem is characterized by children having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 30. The rate of childhood obesity in the United States has been increasing significantly in the past decade. This has put many children at the risk of physical, social, and psychological issues; some of which are extended to their adulthood. Therefore, it is important to study this problem and develop interventions that can help reduce the rate of obesity in children. This study was designed to provide an evidence-based solution to obesity in children. The PICOT statement, “children with a BMI above 30 who are undergoing nutritional monitoring compared to not being monitored nutritionally can achieve significant weight loss in a period of a year” will be answered with help of a study aiming at evaluating how diet changes can be helpful in reducing the rates of obesity. This paper evaluates literature on childhood obesity, which helps to understand information on the public health issue that can be used to develop better interventions.
Comparison of Research Questions
The literature that has been included in this research mainly focuses on the causes and the effects of childhood obesity. Some of the studies evaluate the effects in childhood while others evaluate the adulthood effects. There are also studies on prevention and intervention methods for dealing with the public health issue. The study by GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators (2017) has a different approach because it evaluates the trends in obesity across the world. This research is important because it helps to understand the extent of childhood obesity as a public health issue not only in America, but also in other countries.
Sahoo et al. (2015), evaluates the causes and effects of childhood obesity. The research takes an overall approach in evaluating all types of causes and effects of obesity in children. Xu and Xue (2016) also have a similar research question. This research also evaluates the causes and effects of obesity but is extended to evaluate the prevention strategies to avoid the occurrence of obesity in children. These two studies help to understand more about the factors that cause obesity in children, which is helpful in developing the intervention for this research. Other studies that have investigated the effects of childhood obesity pay attention to the possible effects in adulthood. Ayer et al. (2015) investigates the possible lifetime risks of cardiovascular disease because of childhood obesity. The authors hypothesize that a person has a higher lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease if they are overweight or obese as a child. Simmonds et al. (2016) investigates the risk of being obese as an adult when one is obese as a child. The study’s research question asks whether the risk of obesity in adulthood is increased by childhood obesity.