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Obesity In Amercia

RUNNING HEAD: Obesity

Obesity in the United States
Sample Research Paper
National University

Abstract

The following assignment is a research paper on obesity in the United States. Obesity is a top health concern in this country. This assignment includes how obesity can affect an individual's health, how society can help, issues at home and at school, cultural differences, and agencies that can help with obesity.

Obesity in the United States
Sadly, but truly, the United States is the country with the most obese people. "More than half of adults in the United States are estimated to be overweight or obese" ("Healthy People," n.d.). Obesity causes health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. If something is not done soon, more people will continue to die of diseases that could have been prevented if obesity was not an issue.
Healthy People 2010
Obesity is one of the leading health indicators of Healthy People 2010. Some of the objectives that Healthy People hope to achieve by 2010 are to reduce the proportion of children, adolescents, and adults who are overweight or obese; these are objectives 19-3c and 19-2 ("Healthy People," n.d.). The obesity numbers are increasing rather than decreasing.
In 1988 to 1994, eleven percent of children and teenagers aged six to nineteen years of age were obese. Those numbers increased to fifteen percent in the years 1999-2000. Healthy People expect to bring that percentage down to five percent by 2010.
The data on adults aged twenty and above are much higher than children and adolescents. In 1988-1994, twenty-three percent of adults were obese, but the percentage increased to thirty-one percent between 1999 and 2000. The Healthy People 2010 target for adult obesity is fifteen percent ("Healthy People," n.d.).
If these numbers do not decrease we will continue to have a higher number of deaths due to diseases caused by obesity. "Overweight and obesity...