Relationship between Parental Physical Activity and Obesity in their Children

Obesity and Parent Relationship
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Obesity and Parent Relationship
Obesity is among the most challenging health issues in the US presently. Every year, the US records a higher number of obesity cases, thereby instilling holistic interventions. Part of the focus presently is geared towards obesity in children and adolescents that is fast increasing. If proper interventions are not implemented, more children could face the challenge of managing illnesses associated with the prevalence of obesity. Parenting is one of the areas that have been explored in an attempt to outline the interventions that could mitigate the prevalence of childhood obesity. Debates are raging on the impacts that parenting behaviors, environment, and genetic factors impact the obesity trends in their children. This paper explores child obesity by addressing the PICOT question: are children (P) born to obese parents without family-based physical activity (PA) programs (I) at increased risks for obese condition (O) compared with those born with the normal condition (C) aged below 18 years) (T)? Developing the links in parental behaviors, including their attitude towards PA, genetics, and their environment should help create an intervention to mitigate obesity among children and adolescents.
Background
Childhood obesity is a serious problem that puts adolescents and children at risk of poor health. Obesity among children and adolescents in the US alone stays high and keeps increasing. CDC reports of the years 2017 and 2018 indicate that 14.4 million children in the US were obese, accounting for 19.3% of the population in that segment. Two to five-year-olds marked a prevalence rate of 13.4%, six to 11-year-olds at 20.3%, and 21.2% among 12 to 19-year-olds. The numbers increase as the children grow older. Childhood obesity is also skewed across different ethnic groups. There was an 8.7% prevalence rate among Asian Americans, 16.1% among non-Hispanic whites, 24.2% among African Americans, and 25.6% among Hispanic children. There are also concerns with parental factors and their impacts on the prevalence of obesity in children. In 2011-2014, it was established that obesity was lower in high-income groups than in low-income individuals. Still, obesity among two to 18-year-olds reduced with the increase in the level of education of the head of the household. In the same period, obesity prevalence was 10.9% among those in the highest income categories, while it stayed at 18.9% among children and adolescents from low-income households (Constant et al., 2020). With multiple factors attributable to the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents, holistic approaches must be undertaken to mitigate the prevalent trends.
Parental Factors
Physical Activity
Physical activity (PA) is one of the proven avenues of reducing body mass that parents could employ to mitigate childhood obesity. In the pediatric and adolescent population, increasing body mass is an escalating concern. According to Sigmund et al. (2018), concerns have been raised on the understanding that a significant percentage of children and adolescent populations do not attain the public health recommendation for PA. This happens even though lo...