Obesity is one of the most complex and chronic disease, which is characterized by the excessive accumulation of fat in the body that results to severe health issues. Having high BMI of 30 or higher, is consider as the obese. Its a serious medical condition that gets worsen over time, if not taken care of. It can results in several health problems like diabetes(type 2), heart diseases, high BP etc. This blog post helps in exploring the prevalence and trends of the teen obesity, associated health risk, contributing factors that leads to obesity and lastly the preventive measures to address this issue.
Adolescent obesity
According to WHO, the number of overweight or obese teens is getting increased every day. As per the data collected from world obesity federation in year 2022 about 8% children found under the category of obese and they are between 5 to 19 age group. Their prediction says that approximately 206 million teenagers between this age group will be suffering from obesity in 2025 if it is not managed or controlled. This is the current data that really needs special and urgent attention. This issue needs to be resolve as soon as possible before it gets too late to control. If we analyze data from India, it is still low as compared to other countries but it does not mean that in India we did not have such cases. Change in diet, lifestyles, reduced physical activities all together contribute to this rising trend.
Factors responsible for obesity in teenagers
There are many interconnected factors that are responsible for rising obesity among teens which includes,
- Dietary habits: It is one of the most common problems among teenagers nowadays. Fast food, sweet, sugary drinks and snacks leads to such health problems. These food items contains large amount of calories and low nutrient quality. Regular consumption can leads to weight gain and ultimately results in obesity.
- Lifestyles: Spending too much time on smart phones, laptops, video games reduce the physical activities among teens, they are spending more time sitting in front of screen rather than engaging themselves in physical activities like playing, dancing, swimming etc.
- Genetics: Genes plays an important role in increasing chances of a person to develop obesity not directly, no gene is directly involved in causing obesity. There are various environmental factors that promote it. For example, in the case of diabetes, if a patient has any family history of diabetes it was seen there are higher chances of them to get it.
- Socioeconomic factors: Factors like poverty, food insecurities, people with low income or those who are below the poverty line are those who are not able to afford healthy food. They have to consume cheap, highly processed food.
Health risk:
Obesity in teenage group is one of the major issue that todays youngsters are facing, this results in wide range of health issues from short term to long term.
- Physical health risk: Teenage group are more likely to develop physical health problems like, Cardiovascular disorders Type 2 diabetes, Sleep apnea, Non Alcoholic fatty liver and various kind of Joint problems.
- Social and psychological health risk: Obesity among Teenage groups can affect their mental health also, as they are bullied due to their overweight. They get discriminated against and this directly affects their confidence level. They undergo depression and prefer to stay alone.
Preventive measures:
- Promoting healthy eating habits: Encourage teen to adopt healthy lifestyles, make them aware about the pros and cons of having more processed junk food. Incorporated more healthy food in their diet like fruits, prebiotics, vegetables, and highly nutritious food items.
- Increasing physical activities: Organize outdoor activities like sports games, and encourage them to participate. Make them understand that instead of sitting ideal at home and playing video games they can engage them in more physical activities that helps in boosting their metabolism.
- Awareness and education among teens: Education is the key and also plays crucial role. This makes them understand to make difference between whats good for them and their health and whats bad.
Conclusion
Teen obesity is a growing worldwide crisis with severe health consequences. By studying and understanding the factors that result in obesity, we can find out preventive measures to control it. By providing effective prevention strategies among the teenagers, families, and communities, it is not possible to completely eradicate this issue, its not in our hands but yes we can control it by taking several preventive measures and promote a healthy future for the upcoming generations. Before taking preventive measures it is important to make youngsters aware of this problem, engaging them more in outdoor activities. Resolving such issues among the youngsters is not only a matter of individual responsibility, it requires teamwork, everyone should come forward to work together for the success of this approach.
