There are different aspects to look at when addressing the evidenced based change of childhood obesity. When I have spoken with my mentor about this issue, she thought this was a great topic because it is growing so much and yet not being tackled like it should be.

The financial aspect becomes more of the cost for the families and the parents of the overweight children. According to DUKE, the Global Health Institute, "Childhood obesity comes with an estimated price tag of $19,000 per child when comparing lifetime medical costs to those of a normal weight child, according to an analysis led by researchers at the Duke Global Health Institute and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.

When multiplied by the number of obese 10-year-olds in the United States, lifetime medical costs for this age alone reach roughly $14 billion." (Duke- Global Health Institute, 2014) This doesn't even begin to cover the cost the individual will incur as the grow into adulthood and are now dealing with lifelong issues such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

"Obesity is a known risk factor for a wide range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Roughly one in three adults and one in five children in the United States are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (Duke- Global Health Institute, 2014)

When addressing the quality aspect, this is more about the quality of life. How much quality of life would the individual have if they are not able to play with their friends, or enjoy special treats when they want to.

Not to mention if they are constantly taking medications for comorbidities that have arisen, would dramatically decrease their quality of being a child. On the other hand, if this is not addressed and the comorbidities arise the quality of life will drop dramatically until the issue is diagnosed and addressed.

The clinical part of this job is to do our due diligence and research to find solutions and ideas to addressing the growing problem and reach out to all communities again and again.

I know that when the children are going for their healthy checkups this can be addressed by their pediatricians and also information can be given to parents when the children enter school age. Working together with all parts of the community will strengthen our possibilities of educating our communities.

References

Duke- Global Health Institute. (2014, April 7). Over a Lifetime, Childhood Obesity Costs $19,000 Per Child.