Health society and sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Health society and sustainability - Essay Example estimates by the WHO, show that a total of forty two million children under the age of five years were overweight or actually obese globally as at 2012. In Australia alone statistics as at the year 2008 showed at least one obese child in every four. Things are getting any better and this is a particularly worrisome trend considering the negative health effects both mentally, physically and physiologically. My objective in this paper is to highlight the social determinants of childhood obesity and why the problem is important to modern health systems. Obesity comes with adverse health impacts and such placing a huge economic burden to families as well as healthcare systems. As such therefore, childhood obesity is increasingly becoming an important concern for health not only in Australia but internationally. The problem is a result of various sociological determinants which are interrelated; factors in the environment, family socio-economic factors as well as behavioural elements. There are referred to as sociological health determinants and they revolve around those conditions in which individuals were born, brought and where they live & work. From a broader perspective therefore, they represent elements of people’s social contexts significant to their health outcomes. Grouping the sociological health determinants of Obesity is therefore an important of building of knowledge that will help address the issue in our society. According to the Australian Institute of Statistics, childhood obesity is on the rise and this is particularly because of intake of foods high on fats and sugars, and having less time for physical exercise. Research shows that children who become overweight or obese have an increase likelihood of staying obese into their adulthood and developing associated medical conditions such as cardiovascular conditions and type 2 diabetes. In the year 2008 alone the problem of obesity cost Australia a whopping $ 58 billion in terms of health services,