Child Obesity Condition

Child Obesity Condition

Scope of the study
This research will evaluate the nutritional status of children between the ages of 6.5 to 11.6 years of age. They shall also determine the effectiveness of the children on how to use tape recorders to record their food in the 24-hour food recall. They shall also assess the factors that influence the occurrence of obesity.
Nature of the problem
Obesity is a condition in which a child has more than enough fat in the body. This is mainly due to lack of balance between the energy intake and expenditure. It occurs when the expenditure of energy is lower than the intake leading to accumulation of fat. With the ever-increasing numbers of this problem, it has come to be declared as a public health problem. Because of the stigma the children with this condition face, experts have decide to give it a more friendly term that is overweight.( Bessesen DH 2008).according to Bessesen DH (2008) this problem has tremendously increased from the 1980 to 2010.he claims that as of now, about 10%of all the children globally have this problem.
Justification of your claim
Rates of obesity have always been on the upward trend for the last thirty years, since the year 1980. This is evidenced by the fact that, by last year the rates were up to 10%. According to research, overweight in Canada has been increasing especially in boys that has risen from the mere 11 %in 1980 to about a third of the children by the end of the 90s .similarly in brazil, within the same time, the rates rose from the paltry 4% to about 14%.in the US , the rates were on the upward trend in the similar period. However, after the early 2000 the trend was that the rates were reducing. In Australia, the rates are similar to those in US but there are isolated cases in the remote areas where nutrition education has not penetrated. Because of these statistics, there is an agent need to address the problem that is really spreading everywhere (Sydney Morning Herald, 2010).
Methods of data collection
In this research, they shall use the following method s in data collection.
BMI will be used to determine the rates of obesity among children of the age of two years and more. The normal range of the BMI will vary according to age and sex .for those who will have a BMI of greater than the 95th percentile they will be regarded as being obese. The BMI will be calculated using the child’s weight divided by the square of their weight in metres. Because BMI is age specific we shall us the BMI for age. After calculating the BMI, the value will be plotted on the CDC BMI for age chart for both girls and boys .this will be to obtain the percentage ranking. This percentile shows the status of the child in relation to the children of the same age and sex. They will use the following to group the children’s status ( Jamie O , 2006).
Weight status Percentile ranges
underweight <5%
Normal weight 5%- <85%
Overweight 85%-<95%
Obesity Equal to or greater than 95%
Secondly, they shall use the dietary assessment methods to assess how much the children eat .here they shall use the 24 hr food recall. However, because of the limited ability of the children to remember vividly, they will use a tape recorder. This will be used by the children immediately after consuming the foods .the children will have to record this information for about six times. To add value while using a tape recorder method of measuring energy intake, the respondents will be required to record their 24-hour food recall for up to six times. This is to improve the accuracy of the of the energy intake calculations. This method of data collection will include at least two weekdays and any of the days in the weekend.
Preliminary findings
In children in Australian, where their diet was limited and other factors like watching television, reduced consumption of high energy foods and the increase in the number of exercises; there was a remarkable decline in the weight i.e. about 1000 grams . In the study to investigate the effect of the factors like sleep on BMI,it was found that there was a big correlation between lack of sleep and obesity. The study found that children who had at least an hour of sleep had a lowered level of being overweight. It was found that it reduced obesity incidence by 30-36 %. It was also found that it lowers the chances of obesity in later ages by about 30% (Sydney Morning Herald, 2010).

References
Bessesen DH (June 2008). Update on obesity. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology
and Metabolism.
Flynn MA, McNeil DA, Maloff B, et al. (2006). Reducing Obesity and Related Chronic
Disease Risk in Children and Youth: A Synthesis Of Evidence With ‘Best Practice’ Recommendations. Obese Rev 7 (Supply 1): 7–66.
Miller J, Rosenbloom A, Silverstein J (2004). Childhood obesity. Journal of Clinical , Endocrinology and Metabolism. 89 (9): pg 4211–8.
Snell E, Emma K A. and Greg J D. (2010). Sleep and the Body Mass Index
and Overweight Status of Children and Adolescents. Child Development Society for Research in Child Development’s
Sydney Morning Herald (2010). How To Deal With Overweight/Obese Children .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011).
Childhood Overweight and Obesity .Retrieved 4/18/2011.