Body Mass Index In Association To Access To Food Stores Essays

Body Mass Index In Association To Access To Food Stores Essays Body Mass Index In Association To Access To Food Stores Paper Body Mass Index In Association To Access To Food Stores Paper Normal weight has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having a body mass index (BMI) of 18. 5 to 24. 9 kg/m2 (Deurenberg and Yap, 1999; Weisell, 2002). BMI is the ratio of an individual’s weight in kilograms (kg) to his heights in meters squared (m2). An individual with a BMI of 25 to 29 kg/m2 is classified as overweight, those with BMI greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2 are categorized as moderately obese, and people with BMI of 40 kg/m2 and above are identified as morbidly obese. Obesity was earlier considered as an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Today, obesity is regarded as a disease that is strongly influenced by genetic, physiologic and behavioral factors (Jequier and Tappy, 1999). The global estimate of overweight people is currently 1. 2 billion, of which at least 300 million are classified as obese. Obesity has been identified as a preventable health risk, but unfortunately, the mortality rate of this disease is still high, contributing to approximately 300,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. Since the cases of overweight and obesity are continually increasing without any preference to economic status of a country, health governing bodies have put in a significant effort to promote awareness of this disease and intervention programs that would teach the public of the risks of being overweight and/or obese. A major factor that influences such excessive weight gain is the poor lifestyle choices individuals make, in terms of their eating, exercising and physical activities. In the paper by Powell et al. (2007) entitled â€Å"Associations between access to food stores and adolescent body mass index,† the influence of food stores to body weight is discussed with a surprising result. Food consumption and access to food stores are two major lifestyle factors have been suggested to influence the significant increase in rates of obesity. Classically, there has been a general and significant increase in the amount of money spent towards food bought outside the home, and that the choices of the general public as food are those that are easily accessible, quick to prepare and of very reasonable prices. Hence, food stores have been the popular choice of the public, because these are strategically located at almost every specific area in every city. Food stores offer items that are cheap and quick to serve. The study conducted by Powell et al. (2007) involved survey data from high school students in relation to different kinds of food stores and restaurant establishments. The number of food stores, as correlated with the prices of the food items, was analyzed in correspondence to the zip codes of the students participating in the study. BMI was estimated using the height and weight of the participants and categorized according to the growth chart of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The survey showed an interesting result that access to chain supermarkets was negatively correlated to body mass index among adolescents. In contrast, the presence of food stores or convenience stores was positively correlated to higher body mass index and overweight conditions. In addition, the correlation between access to food stores and body mass index varied among ethnic groups. The study revealed that there was a stronger correlation between access to supermarkets and increase in weight among African-American adolescents, in comparison to white or Hispanic adolescents. The same correlation was also observed among adolescents that come from families in which the mother was working on a full-time setting. References Deurenberg, P and Yap M (1999): The assessment of obesity: methods for measuring body fat and global prevalence of obesity. Baillieres Best Pract. Res. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 13(1):1-11. Jequier, E and Tappy L (1999): Regulation of body weight in humans. Physiol. Rev. 99(2):451-80. Powell LM, Auld C, Chaloupka FJ, O’Malley PM, Johnston LD (2007): Associations between access to food stores and adolescent body mass index. Am. J. Prev. Med. 33(4S):S301–S307. Weisell, RC (2002): Body mass index as an indicator of obesity. Asia Pac. J. Clin. Nutr. 11:S681-S684.