WEEK 6 OBESITY Flashcards
What is overweight and obesity defined as?
- When energy intake is more than energy expended through physical activity
What is the most common calculation for weight status in adults and what is the formula?
- BMI
- BMI= weight in kg/height (m^2)
What is the prevalence in Australia (2017) of overweight and obesity in children?
1.9 billion adults 18 years+ overweight & 650 million adults obese
- 1 in 5 children (20%) from 2-4 yrs
- 11% had overweight and 9 % had obesity
Does childhood obesity affect a similar proportion of males and females?
- YES
Why is obesity known as a wicked problem?
- Because it is difficult or impossible to solve
- We need to know what matters, what works (in the real world) and what translates.
- Must think in new and different ways
What are 4 reasons why a wicked problem in general is difficult to solve?
- incomplete or contradictory knowledge
- the number of people and opinions involved
- Large economic burden
- the interconnected nature of these problems with other problems
e.g. Poverty being linked with education, and nutrition being linked with poverty.
What are two of the main factors in relation to obesity being a wicked problem?
- Double burden of malnutrition (drives of under and over nutrition are in women and children sharing common elements like poverty and food security)
- Access to obesity prevention is inequitable (lots of children are at risk of failing to reach their full potential due to the impact of developmental risks on health., wellbeing and productivity throughout life.
Are obesity related behaviours established in early childhood and do they track through to adulthood?
- YES and YES
What is the rough time period that is viewed as a crucial period for child obesity prevention?
- First 2000 days (5 years)
Is obesity much harder to reverse than prevent?
Yes
True or false. A meta-analysis showed children with obesity have a five fold increase risk of having obesity in adulthood….
TRUE
Do we have any reliable tools to determine risk and protective profiles from infancy, to develop evidence-based interventions that will assist parents, educators, and health promotion practitioners to reduce the prevalence of excessive weight gain in the formative preschool years?
- NO
Is there a link between higher weight status and cancers?
- YES
What are three implications of childhood obesity beyond physical health?
- Negatively impacting self esteem and mental health
- Long term education
- Quality of life
Are the causes of obesity simple or complex?
- they are complex, extending from genetic to social-cultural factors.
What type of theory has been used to summarise the complex interplay between these multidimensional contributors to excess child weight development and inform childhood obesity research?
- Ecological systems theory (quality and the context of a child’s environment)
What is Ecological systems theory?
- It places the parent and child factors as the most PROXIMAL influences on the development of overweight and obesity during early childhood.
How is ecological systems theory integrated with the early obesity risk in the first 2000 days?
- This involves the early mother/caregiver- child interactions: biological, behavioral, and psychosocial interactions.
What are three reasons why high quality parent-child interactions ‘matter’ to child development?
- responsive, sensitive parenting, helps to build trust in the relationship- child knows their parent can comfort/support them in times of stress
- High quality interactions impact on the neurophysiological structures (sleep, stress response, appetite), thus supporting optimal development of self-regulation
- Stress response, sleep and appetite are implicated in energy regulation and eating behavior (cortisol slows metabolism, stress eating etc)
What are examples of child-level factors?
- Age
- Gender
- Temperament
- Self-regulation
- Eating behaviour
Do cross sectional studies give an idea of causation?
- NO
- Because the data is collected at one time point
What are the multi-level social-ecological interactions that shape parent/caregiver actions- in terms of childhood overweight/obesity?
- Health equity
- Political, economic and social drivers of inequities (including racism-related stressors, not soley race/ethnicity)
What are three integrating perspectives for addressing early childhood obesity prevention?
- Childhood development (incorporates ages ad stages of child dev, quality of caregiver interactions)
- Health equity (drivers of social determinants of health)
- Critical race theory
What is critical race theory?
- recognizes current and historical factors that drive widening inequities in obesity rates and disproportionate burden experienced by historically disadvantaged populations.