Combating Obesity for Hispanic children living in Solano County
Obesity is a largely preventable disease that has been affecting over a third of the world’s population to this day. It is defined as excess body weight for height that increases the risk of developing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (Hruby, 2015). The rise of morbid obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States Hispanics population. Numbers have doubled and still continue to increase in the United States. 37.1% of children, ages 2-19, were reported to be overweight, and 16.9% were obese. Besides reducing one’s overall quality of life, the more severe consequences of this disease can result to cancers, hypertension, and early death (Fakeeh et al., 2019). Lower socioeconomic status families are linked with a higher prevalence of obesity in these adolescents due to the unequal distribution of social and economic resources. Access to recreation facilities, health food markets, and receiving food education all play a factor in obesity.
Nature and Extent of the Problem
Priority Population
The priority population will be focused on Hispanic children, ages 10-17, living in Solano County. According to the California Department of Education and Physical Fitness testing research files, in 2018, 41-46% of Solano County children in 5th-9th grade were obese. Obesity is twice as prevalent among 6-11 year old Hispanic children compared to non-Hispanic White children (Isasi, 2016). During this time in their life, children are also still working on their social and behavioral development. It’s important to establish healthy eating behaviors and physical activity levels while their habits are still growing. The development of obesity in Hispanic children is caused by insufficient eating behaviors and lack of consistent daily exercise being influenced by food education, parental diets, food availability, poverty and environmental factors.
Location
Solano holds a high percentage (17%) of children, ages 1-17, living in poverty compared to the other counties in the Bay Area, which include Santa Clara (9%), Napa (10%), San Mateo (10%), and San Francisco (12%) (Solano County Public Health Epidemiology Unit, 2017). Children living in a socioeconomic disadvantaged environment invite exposure to nutrient-poor foods and unhealthy sugary drinks. Inversely, children that are socioeconomically advantaged were associated with lower body mass index (BMI), accessible food markets, and more neighborhood parks and playgrounds (Juonala et al., 2019). Children living in poverty and/or low-income communities are at a disadvantage due to accessibility of affordable healthy foods. According to the 2019 Solano County Health Status Report, the median household income for Hispanic or Latino is $58,273. On the report of the Census, the median household income in 2018 was $77,609. The reduction in income can limit the amount or decreases the quality of foods being purchased in the household.
Factors Contributing to the Problem
Individual Factors
Lifestyle behaviors such as lack of physical exercise or poor dietary choices contribute to unhealthy weight gain. The imbalance between caloric intake and consistency of physical exercise causes many chronic diseases that lead to premature death and adulthood mortality (Lee & Yoon, 2018). With advancements in the digital world, more children are glued to TV and computer screens. High levels of screen exposure can reduce the amount of time parents can interact with their children. Commercial TV has been reported to increase overall food intake due to exposure of unhealthy food commercials and over-snacking (Canadian Paediatric Society, 2017). Although, not all screen time is negative, as parents can utilize videos that incorporate physical activity to encourage their kids to be active.
Socio-environmental Factors
Family relationships are important to consider since it’s common to have children be fed by someone other than their parents. It’s common for both parents to work in the current days because of the high cost of living. The result of this is parents being more likely to lean on their relatives for support. The people that children surround themselves hold a great influence because it’s a gateway to developing good or bad habits. Grandparents looking after their grandchildren sometimes have care-taking practices that are outdated. It may impact the child’s feeding practices, body mass index (BMI), and amount of physical activity provided to the child (Metbulut et al., 2018). Past traditions play a factor in reinforcing that behavior. Certain families may also have different standards that define a healthy child, or how to raise a child, which may be another barrier in reducing obesity.
Environmental Factors
The prevalence of food deserts and food insecurity in Solano County create a barrier in having access to quality food. Food deserts occur when urban neighborhoods or rural areas don’t live near food markets that provide fresh, nutritional, affordable foods. (Ghosh-Dastidar et al., 2017). This forces families to rely on local fast food joints or convenience stores, affecting them negatively due to the limited number of healthy food options provided. In rural areas, any distance greater than 10 miles to the nearest grocery store is labeled as a food desert (Kelli et al., 2019). Solano County currently has eight zip codes that live in food deserts. Weak access to healthy food creates more poor diets, leading to higher levels of obesity and diabetes. In 2013, there were 63,390 people who were food insecure. That makes up 15.2% of people in Solano County (Solano County Public Health Epidemiology Unit, 2017).
Impact of the Problem
Children that are overweight and obese aren’t only at risk for chronic diseases, but also have the risk to experience negative physical, social, and mental health. Children ages 10-17 are most vulnerable during those years because their cognitive and socio-emotional skills are still developing (Alderman et al., 2017). Excessive body fat that children gain commonly persists into their adulthood is associated with lower cognitive and school achievement. A continuation in nutritional deficiencies and overeating has also shown to have higher incidences in the use of mental health services in their later years (Carlsey et al., 2018).
The Road for Improvement
Over the years, there have been various interventions that promote healthy eating and more exercise. An asset and strength of Solano County is their strong efforts in community-based programs for nutrition education. They are ambitious and driven to reaching more than 300,000 people to improve their community’s health (Richards & Cox, 2015). The Food Agriculture & Nutrition Network of Solano County (FANNS) aims to provide better access to fresh fruits and vegetables and healthier beverage choices. They increase CalFresh awareness for those experiencing food insecurity and encourage water consumption through education. The CalFresh program increases the importance of healthy eating and physical activity among low-income populations.
Solutions
The schools children attend have a big influence on their everyday activities since a lot of time is spent there. The constant interaction between educators and their students provide a good opportunity to teach the importance of consistent, daily physical exercise and health eating. A common roadblock educators have is the lack of necessary health education to implement in their teachings. A study on school districts showed that only 67.8% of schools required teachers to be certified in teaching health education (Birch et al., 2019). An option can be teaming up with CalFresh can be beneficial in allowing teachers to engage in nutrition education. We must ensure teachers obtain proper health certifications/licensure in order to well prepare students in health knowledge and skills to live a safe and healthy life.
By relaying the information learned at school to life at home, implementing healthy eating and nutritional knowledge can benefit both the parents and their children. Studies have shown that adolescents that engage in preparing food for their family has led to improvement in eating patterns and quality diets (Berge et al., 2016). Eating patterns refer to how frequent breakfast is eaten, fast food consumption, and the amount of family meals. A quality diet refers to an increase in fruit and vegetable intake and lowering of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages (Berge et al., 2016). This way, family members and the child are positive influences on each other.
Cost and availability of foods play a crucial role in obesity. Fostering policies to eliminating more fast food joints to be replaced with more affordable, healthy food stores is a good step in the right direction. Many fast food places tend to serve double the size of what USDA serving size recommends. These large portion sizes naturally encourage overconsumption (Schwartz et al., 2020). It’s common for parents to result to fast food establishments due to it being less costly, but the energy-dense foods that also come with can be a gateway to increasing body weight. Foods with a higher fat content, such as fried food, increases the energy density in comparison to foods, like vegetables or whole grains, which lower the energy density (Stelmach, 2016). Eliminating these unhealthy food in a child’s diet will dramatically reduce high fat intake, providing more opportunity to intake healthier foods.
Conclusion
Obesity is a preventable disease that Solano County hasn’t successfully combatted. It’s vital to first identify children who are at risk of becoming obese or is currently living with the health issue. It is important to acknowledge the behaviors that contribute to unhealthy eating and lack of physical exercise, such as social or environmental factors. Utilizing schools to implementing educational classes for children and parents may help the family understand the importance of healthy eating behaviors and being more physically active. Schools can play a huge involvement in assisting children with maintaining a healthy BMI, as many hours are spent there. It also gives an opportunity for a class to be taught in physical or nutrition education. Outside of school, policies should be put in place to allow easier access to healthy, affordable food markets. This will lay the foundation in the success of reducing obesity in Hispanic children living in Solano County.
References
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