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Care Of The Obese Population

Care of the Obese Population
The problem of obesity has already been determined. Many solutions to the problem are on the rise, but how do we handle the here and now? Obesity is a complex health issue, of which no one solution or source can yet address. Brief historical and cascading events, definitions, cost, life expectancy, medical adversities and statistical information are offered in this paper to outline the disparities of how we are going to care for the obese population.
Obesity, as defined by the Institute of Medicine is, "an important chronic degenerative disease that debilitates individuals and kills prematurely." (Institute of Medicine, 1995) This very simplistic definition follows the medical model of health care and leaves no doors open for introspection of the problem or solution. A more holistic model would state that obesity is a complex process involving a variety of social, behavioral, cultural, environmental, physiological, and genetic factors that interact to affect an individual's body weight. Obesity specifically refers to an excess amount of body fat that is determined by the Body Mass Index (BMI) to be greater than or equal to 30. The BMI mathematical formula is based on a person's height in inches divided by weight in pounds squared, times 703. BMI correlates with total body fat content and has become the medical standard for measuring overweight and obesity (Matz, 1993). A BMI less than 18.5 indicates underweight, 18.5-24.9 represents normal weight, 25-29.9 represents overweight, 30.0-34.9 represents class I obesity, 35.0-39.9 describes class II obesity and a BMI greater than 40 describes class III and severe obesity (NIH, 2003).
Centrally distributed adipose tissue that is out of proportion to total body fat is an independent predictor of risk factors. The individual components of abdominal fat to overall risk indicate different risk factors. For example, the visceral fat component is strongly correlated with risk factors for...