Introduction
One and a half decades ago, Times Magazine published a specific health issue on the cover page, depicting a child with excess weight holding an ice cone while skateboarding. The title of the magazine was “Modern day super-sized Kids”, and at a quick glance, one would not notice the skateboard was sagging in the middle as the child was obese. Today, the rate of childhood obesity is three times higher than it was in the 1970s, with one in five children obese in the USA and the number increasing annually (Hill and Schober, 2023). This research seeks to investigate the ethical and cultural perspectives of the issues facing the medical community in addressing the prevalent issue of childhood obesity.
Level 1 Research Question/Writing Prompt: What ethical obstacles affect how the medical community addresses childhood obesity?
One major obstacle is balancing between respecting patient autonomy and addressing parental responsibility. The medical community must observe patient autonomy, and it is equally important to include parents in influencing a child’s diet and physical activities. According to legal boundaries, parents have the right to decide how to raise their children, which creates an ethical dilemma when raising obese children (Blasingame, 2023). This means parents are responsible for the children’s diet and the choice of physical activities. It is challenging for the medical community to convince the parents of a child with obesity that childhood obesity is a complicated issue that requires more than parental choices.
Another ethical concern that the medical community faces when addressing childhood obesity is the tension between fostering healthy behaviors and fostering body image issues in children. In many cases, body weight is viewed as a personal choice. Therefore, the tension arises as the medical community is forced to use words that are not disrespectful and create plans to address obese children carefully.
Additionally, access to resources and socio-economic disparities can pose ethical dilemmas, as many families lack equal access to healthy foods, safe physical activities, or effective healthcare services. This issue mainly affects vulnerable populations, such as low-income families and people living in marginalized areas (Hill and Schober, 2023). It poses an ethical obstacle to the medical community as they are expected to understand that such vulnerable groups do not have the potential to offer their obese children the required interventions to treat obesity, thus exacerbating health disparities.
The final point on this level is the issue of industry influence, especially the food industry, which makes it difficult for the medical community efforts to promote healthy nutrition to obese children by promoting unhealthy foods and beverages. The food and beverage firms’ campaigns foster the consumption of high-sugar, fat, and calorie drinks and food (Ahuja and Pawelczak, 2023). Many foods are more affordable and accessible for children than healthy foods. Many low-income families can easily access the foods due to the low prices and large portion sizes. Such industries promote children’s obesity through advertising and offering super-sized foods that have higher calories than what is required in children’s nutrition.
Level 2 Research Question/Writing Prompt: How do conflicting interests between healthcare providers, the food industry, and government regulations impact the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity?
Today, the medical community faces many conflicting interests from the government and the food industry in their quest to prevent and treat obesity in children. Healthcare providers are on the Frontline of fighting the effects of obesity on children, positively impacting the obesity pandemic in children. Healthcare is a profession of education, as it is the medical community’s role to educate parents and children about the value of healthy nutrition (Blasingame, 2023). Health professionals help obese children establish health goals, emphasizing the need for exercise and a healthy meal as the primary factors to manage weight in children. They also serve a significant role in preventing childhood obesity by monitoring risk factors and children’s well-being to determine the chances of exposure to obesity ( Hill and Schober, 2023). Therefore, it is the role of the medical community to provide individually tailored plans to address children’s obesity issues. However, in this process, there are many conflicting interests between the medical community, the government,t, and the food industry in influencing the interventions for children’s obesity. As much as healthcare providers are willing to change children’s lifestyles and metabolism to combat unhealthy weight gain, it is difficult since there are other obstacles, such as the food industry.
For instance, the food industry avails affordable high-sugar and calorie food but claims not to be responsible for promoting worldwide child obesity. The food industry argues that they offer what people want,t and they choose what they want to consume (Ahuja and Pawelczak, 2023). This might, therefore, mean that the parents of obese children are less informed than those of children without obesity. Food industries spend billions each year marketing their products because selling more food means recording higher profits, which is what businesses do. These industries offer foods whose nutritional composition is altered to enhance long life by increasing salt, sugar, and fats, making them unhealthy for children and the general population.
On the other hand, the government also poses great conflicting interests with the medical community in addressing children’s obesity. The government plays a significant duty in helping people choose healthy nutrition and lifestyles by funding educational programs and regulating taxes on healthy foods. However, the government often does not use fiscal policy power to implement measures to prevent obesity. For example, some governments place a high levy on nutritional foods, making it difficult for parents to access them. Moreover, the government should be as invested as the medical college in making the primary school sports program available to address obesity in children.
The cultural perspective
Level 1 Research Question/Writing Prompt: Which cultural values and norms influence the issue of childhood obesity?
Maintaining a healthy body weight in children is complicated by external cultural values and norms such as family upbringing, stigma, cultural perceptions towards food and eating habits, and religion. The Social Cognitive Theory explains how external surroundings and personal experiences influence a person’s decision-making ability concerning their health (Binks, 2023). The theory suggests that for a child to adopt healthy behavior,r they must have social support and self-efficacy to manage obesity and employ observational learning. Therefore, the Social Cognitive Theory is among the most extensively used theoretical frameworks to address obesity management in children.
One significant cultural value discussed in detail on how it influences children’s obesity is family upbringing and the spirit of collectiveness (Blasingame, 2023). In black culture, people in a similar social structurehavel the same social networks, eating habit,s and physical activities among each other and their children. This is a great example that explains how a cultural value influences children obesity prevalence. According to research, obesity is contagious meaning if a parent has obesity; there are higher chances that the child will also have obesity.
Additionally, access to healthy nutrition and physical activities vary according to cultural and socio economic factors, this impacting the possibility of childhood obesity in various communities. For instance, people with a similar cultural background such as immigrants who migrated to particular area from the same country might tend to eat foods that are familiar to them, which are often unhealthy but comforting (Blasingame, 2023). The children consume the same food sometimes in excessive portions, therefore exposed to higher chances of childhood obesity.
Level 2 Research Question/Writing Prompt: How does cultural perception of body image, food traditions, and socio-economic factors contribute to the prevalence of childhood obesity in different communities?
Cultural factors influence how a particular group of people have higher risks of obesity than others. For an easier understanding of how cultural factors promote childhood obesity to understand that a culture is the specific rules learned by a certain group of people who share similar experiences. For instance, how that culture should view different body images, how they perceive eating traditions and how their body image makes them unique to others (Hill and Schober, 2023). There are cultures that do not have an issue with excessive body weight, this they do not consider childhood obesity problematic. Such cultures view being overweight as a sign of wealth, meaning the people who have excess weight have adequate access to food, and their children eat better.
On the other hand, food traditions play a crucial role in influencing nutrition habits and childhood obesity. Food acts as a tool for cultural identity and a way of preserving community unity. In Asian communities, consuming traditional food with family reduces the chances of obesity in children, while it is likely to increase the chances of childhood obesity in the cultures of African Americans (Binks, 2023). Some children are forced to consume traditional foods during ceremonies that have high calories which are stored as far. Again, traditional foods with high sugar and fat contents are absorbed, and when the children do not use the energy in physical exercises, it is stored in the body as excess fat expo,sing them to higher chances of obesity.
Social economic factors further compound the issue of childhood obesity as the parent’s socio-economic status and the wealth of certain countries have significant influence on childhood obesity (Blasingame, 2023). For instance, parents with lower education levels are likely to be less informed on the right nutritional choices for their children expo,sing them to higher chances of obesity. Similarly, the families living below average have limited or no access to nutritious food choices and opportunity for physical activities.
Conclusion
Childhood obesity is a prevalent health issue that has been in existence for many decades, and it is not give the attention it deserves. To combat the ethical issues such as balancing patient autonomy and parent involvement, and the tension to foster healthy body image and behaviors, parents, the food industry and the government should understand that addressing childhood obesity is a collective responsibility. Additionally, to solve the conflicting interests between the medical communities, the food industry and the government various countries should implement strict policies and regulations highlighting the allowed standards of lifestyle to cope with childhood obesity. For instance, food regulation bodies should impose high levy on high calorie and energy foods. Finally, different cultures should be educated on the right ways to perceive food traditions, and other factors that influence childhood obesity such as how they perceive the right body image.
References
Ahuja, & Pawelczak, M. (2023). Teaching second-year medical students how to counsel pediatric patients with unhealthy body mass index. Childhood Obesity, 19(5), 357-361. https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2022.0068
Binks, M. (2023). The role of the food industry in obesity. Handbook of Obesity – Volume 1, 395-405. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003437673-45
Blasingame, M. (2023). The combined effects of social determinants of health on childhood overweight and obesity. Childhood Obesity. https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2022.0222
Hill, A. & Schober, T. (2023). Childhood obesity and health care utilization: Empirical evidence from Austrian administrative data. Childhood Obesity, 19(6), 391-398. https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2022.0011
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