Determinant of Health and Childhood Obesity

The following essay will define the concept of health and wellbeing, illness and health promotion. A case study will be used to consider and demonstrate the health needs of Newham East London as regards to childhood obesity which is caused by above 95th percentile in Body Mass Index (BMI) which is calculated from the child of weight and height. A relevant statistical data report collected from the ONS (2019) and JSNA (2017), will be used to estimate the prevalence of childhood obesity in Newham and overall England. Also, the discernment of health education, social domination, and behaviour concerning equality and diversity as regards to health inequality will be examined.

Furthermore, the socio-economic factors influencing the determinants of health and well-being of young children in Newham and the impact on the overall population will be analysed and discussed. The perception of health promotion, objectives and principles of health promotion with relevant approaches used to prevent childhood obesity in Newham will be discussed using the Beattie’s model (1991). Finally, the awareness of the effectiveness of Beattie’s model of health promotion and its influence on the advancement and stability of young children in Newham to enhance intellectual, physical, environmental and other associated health outcomes will be analysed and discussed with the overall conclusion. The author Joseph Balog (2017), identified health as the outright state of the physical, cognitive, emotional, spiritual and social condition by which the body operates following its original intention and individual's ability to accomplish their vital goals concerning life.

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Conversely, Illich (1976) argues that health is a relative concept and difficult to understand since the meaning of health varies in tune with individual social status and health could represent a different thing to different people from diverse culture and religious background. Well- being can be defined as the positive outcomes from the individual experiences that grantee their happiness and fulfilment of an exceptional life (Dodge et al, 2012). WHO (2018), suggested that illness is a threatening acute or chronic condition of diseases and disorders that cause someone to feel unwell? Childhood obesity is experienced when a child BMI is above 95th Percentile which is calculated through the weight and height of the child considering their sex and age. The accumulation of high fats in the body can develop threatening health conditions which increase morbidity and mortality rate at a young and elderly age (WHO, 2014).

The prevalence rate of childhood obesity in children at the age of 10 to 11 years has raised from 3.2% to 4.2 % from 2017 to 2018 in England. Although, Newham the eastern part of London has increased significantly with the worst statistics recorded of childhood obesity of 12.8% of children at the of age 4 to 5 class and 27.4% at age 10 to 11 in which 43.2% of them were significantly overweight. This is awful to compare to the pervasiveness rate of 9.1 % children age 4 to 5 and 19.1% of 10 to 11 years that was estimated in other cities of England. (PHE, 2019, JSNA, 2017)). The studies of Va Mentink at al (2013), identified that 25% of an adult who suffered from Asthma, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, renal failure and co-operative obstruction disease has resulted from childhood obesity. The emotional well-being of children can also be affected. In most cases, children might develop low self-esteem, isolate themselves from social activities and withdraw from school because they are being bullied by their peers. To prevent this from occurring parents are encourage to always assist their young children to make the best choice for their health. Individual perception of health is a factor that effects on childhood obesity. It explained how individual understand, interpret their health and health of others through behaviour, lifestyle choices, beliefs, environment, and mass media.

The Health Belief Model (1950s), specified that individual perception of health is categorised in four dimensions. The perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and perceived barriers ( Jones et al, 2015 ). For instance, when overweight is perceived as a risk factor to childhood obesity that can cause multiple chronic illnesses. Then, the individual will adopt every effective measure to prevent and reduce the occurrence with the perceived responsibility of adopting health life style. Conversely, poor parental perception of the risk factors of childhood obesity has been clarified as incompetent responsibility in preventing and managing childhood obesity. Therefore, individual perception of childhood weight status is an important component during public health planning strategies to reduce the pervasiveness of childhood obesity ( Tompkins et al, 2014; WHO, 2014). Health literacy is an intellectual ability of an individual to make an informed decision about their health, access health and make effective use of health instructions to promote their health and well-being.

Poor health literacy has led to the classification of overweight status as normal weight. This is significant of ignorant of the risk factors and instructions that were given to avert adverse health outcomes, improve food nutritional value and healthy meal option, engage in physical activities and adopt clinical measures like regular checks and obesity programme. Also, unaware of how to utilise the available healthcare resources in society has resulted from health literacy as well. Social influences have examined the impact of genes, parental health, lifestyles choices, social-economic, age, gender and ethnicity on childhood obesity. Genome-wide association studies ( ), has identified the role of the parental gene has an impact on higher BMI. The twins' family and adoption studies ( ), estimated that 40% to 70% of BMI which manifested at childhood and increased at the adolescent age has indicated the effects of genes on BMI at a young age. (Hollensted et al,2018; Muller et al, 2018). Studies have proved that lifestyles choices such as excess consumption of saturated fats, sugary drinks, poor physical activity, rewarding desirable behaviour, spending much time watching television and computer games have a massive impact on childhood obesity. ( ).

Race, gender age affect access to equal opportunity to health care The increase in junk food restaurant in Newham had led to excess consumption of saturated fatty food, large portion food sizes and above 30% daily sugary consumption approved for children from 4 to 10 years. 11% of children in this area ate less than one portion of vegetable per day. (National Diet Nutrition Survey; PHE, 2019). Also, Newham was recorded for poor physical activities and only 18% per cent children in school year 1 to 6 are adhering to the approved 60 minutes daily physical. The acknowledging of lifestyles choices as a major influence on childhood obesity is crucial for enough averting and controlling obesity in young children. activities. (JFPMC, 2015; CDC, 2018; Centre For London, 2019). Ethnic minority experienced health inequalities gender, ethnicity and age Newham health literacy Equality is treating of individual fairly and neutral according to their specific protected characteristics of race, age, gender, religion and disability. Whereas, diversity is recognising and celebrating individual differences as regards to beliefs, culture and traditions. ( EHRC,2018; ). “Equality Act (2010), is legislation that protects an individual from discrimination, bullying, harassment and victimisation at society, workplace and education’’ (GOV.UK, 2015). Health inequalities can be defined as diverse circumstances that can prevent and restrict individuals and communities the likelihood to have access to good health and long life ( ). Race, gender age affect access to equal opportunity to health care.

The epidemiological method was used to measure ethnic inequalities in health care, and it proven that the ethnicity minority always experienced poorer health status because of inadequate access to health care and diseases prevalence in their community. For example, diabetes is much higher with the Black and Asian community and above 50% of residence in Newham are from Black ethnic and minority population. The differences in morbidity and mortality rate of young children in Newham are a result of health inequalities and children residing in such a socio-economic deprived area suffered mostly from the impact of health inequalities because they are inadequately addressed. However, approaches advocated by primary health care agencies might influence health, social behaviour and social determinant that are likely to reduce health equity (BMC Public Health, 2018). According to the Dahlgren and Whitehead rainbow model (1992), the determinant of health is socio-economic factors such as lifestyles and behaviour, social class, income, education, employment, housing, access to health service, and the environment they live impact the individual health in a specific population. Researches argue that lower social status and low-income results in poorer health care, high morbidity and mortality rate among children. The individual with higher social status is educated, lived suitable accommodation, can afford healthy food and quality health care when they are ill and not vulnerable to disease.

Though, lower social class experienced poor income to provide a healthy meal to their families, lived in unsuitable accommodation and no involvement in social and physical activities. This could impact them could cause emotional distress, misuse of substances or addictive behaviour. Nowadays, poor parental education has contributed to unemployment and a low-income status that has caused material deprivation to individual providing them with the available option to live in damp and overcrowded houses that are stocked with rodent and insect without a heating system because poverty has restricted their preferences to good accommodation. It could affect the psychological and emotional well-being, unavoidable substances misuse and addictive behaviour. ( GOV. The UK, 2018, ). The high rate of childhood obesity is the results of poverty and health inequality in Newham. 35.6% of the working class in Newham are on low-paid wages whilst 37% of children suffered from child poverty to compare to 22 % in England. This is because 41% of adult living in Newham did not have a level 3 qualification which causes them to be unemployed or get a well-paid job. Children that lived in such deprived area are more vulnerable to multiple illnesses to compare to those in un deprived area (Wickham et al 2016). Also, there are 4,500 homelessness individual that are placed under temporary accommodation (Trust for London, 2020)