INTRODUCTION
The growth of a child into adulthood tells a beautiful story of progress, thrive, resilience, focus, and purpose. A sound mind and body are critical to the thriving of children. This has important implications for their future. How they get acquainted with their environment, learn new skills, acquire social acumen and norms, and aspire high in life are intimately intertwined with a healthy mind and body. Anyone who claims to love children must give them a good start in health, as the lingering effects of their health status today can be overwhelming. In adult life, a good health echo from the past must be created now in childhood.
In today’s fast-evolving world, an issue of great concern is obesity. Obesity is a medical condition defined by the accumulation of excessive fat in the body. Its accompanying health outcomes are enormous. Obesity is a driver of several non-communicable diseases (NCDs), that is, diseases that cannot be transmitted from one person to another, as we see with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis. Obesity predisposes one to heart diseases, certain cancers, and diabetes (type II). Obesity is an important health threat among children today. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) recently reported that 9.2% of children worldwide are obese; one in every ten children is obese. This figure is disturbing. The health and economic implications of this for the future are scary.
Dietary behaviour and sedentary lifestyles are major modifiable causes of this condition. Its growing burden calls for intentional effort towards addressing it in time. It is a public health imperative. Parents, faith communities, schools, traditional communities, health centres, and health directorates at all levels have important roles to play in warring against childhood obesity.
COMING TO MEAN
The term “come to mean,” on the one hand, carries the sense of demonstrating love and warmth towards children as depicted in the biblical anecdote in which Jesus insisted that the children be allowed to come to him when his disciples attempted to prevent that. On the other hand, it indicates the statistical method by which the “weight” of a child is classified as “overweight” or “obese.” Obesity is fairly determined by measuring body mass index (BMI), which is a ratio of the mass of an individual to the square of his or her height.
Meanwhile, in children, this BMI markedly changes with growth as they age, and this varies between the sexes (boys and girls). Consequently, a child’s BMI is measured relative to that of his or her peers using age-for-sex growth charts. That is, a single mean (and standard deviation) cannot accurately tell the BMI of a child.
A more accurate way to do this is to determine the extent to which a child’s BMI departs from the mean of a population of their mates (with respect to age and sex), a standardised method called “Standard Deviation Scores,” determined using percentiles and standard deviation. This method has been recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The fight against the problem of childhood obesity is also about bringing a child’s BMI closer to the mean value of the reference population.
CHILDHOOD OBESITY ECHOES
Nipping overweight and obesity in the bud rests on the fact, which has been scientifically tested, that children who are overweight and obese will likely be obese in adulthood and thus suffer the associated NCDs. It has been shown by Elizabeth A. Lundeen and her colleagues in a prospective cohort study (one in which a group of people exposed to a given risk factor is followed up to see whether they will develop a medical condition) carried out for 20 years that overweight or obesity tends to persist into adult life with its attendant cardiovascular diseases and type-2 diabetes.
Already, there is an alarming increase in the prevalence of NCDs around the world. The WHO, in a 2014 report, takes note that globally, NCDs are responsible for 68% of all deaths. In middle- and low-income countries, where Ghana falls, 75% of this mortality emanates from NCDs, as a 2013 report by WHO indicated. Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, and chronic respiratory diseases are the four main contributors to this increasing prevalence. Cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are particularly important in this regard. Diabetes, particularly type-2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease are directly linked to diet choices. Dietary behaviours such as consuming saturated fat, low intake of fruits and vegetables, and high consumption of salt are more specific nutritional factors that have been associated with NCDs.
If things are to remain the way they are at the moment, then we have no option as a world but to expect the worst. Children who are presently overweight and obese face a challenge to their body and mind, which will negatively impact their physical and cognitive development.
SHOWING LOVE, PLAYING OUR ROLE
Our love for children must be demonstrated in how we safeguard their health now. Why won’t society pay particular attention to protecting them from the menace of NCDs?
Children are exposed to energy-dense foods like noodles and sugary drinks. On TV and in shopping centres, they are confronted with such food products through advertisements. Such foods are marketed at vantage places in schools and the larger community. Parents are also often seen feeding their children with such foods as a way of making the children happy, in many instances. Some of them do it because the children demand it. Such an attitude is like a response to this statement I saw on social media: “Forcing your child to eat what you have and not what they like is the highest form of child abuse.”
Children often prefer sugar-sweetened beverages and noodles. Protecting them from consuming these obesogenic foods and encouraging them to eat healthy meals is the highest form of love to show them in this critical period of their life. This is far from being child abuse. This is to say that parents and other family members have an integral role to play in combating childhood obesity. Apart from dietary habits, parents can also ensure that their children do not stay glued to their TV set and electronic gadgets, which will make them sedentary or inactive. Rather, plan a family jogging session and go for walks.
Children’s ministry of churches and other religious bodies must also see themselves as key stakeholders in this public health fight. The practice of sharing sugar-sweetened beverages at children’s meetings must be discouraged. Physical education sessions must be included in the curriculum of these children’s ministries. This “physical exercise intervention” can also be done at the community level through boys’ and girls’ clubs, fully endorsed by community leaders.
Schools must create an environment that will encourage the consumption of healthier foods. Local regulations should be established to prevent the marketing and sale of sugary drinks to schoolchildren. School athletics and sports should be open to all students, not limited to those who are talented in sports. The curriculum of schools must include lessons on food environment, including but not limited to lessons on the health risk of consuming energy-dense foods, sugary drinks, saturated fats, and foods high in salt; and lessons on how to read food labels. Child health departments of health facilities must adopt a system that tracks the BMI of children and follows up on them to assess how they are progressing in controlling the risk factors.
At the national level, policies that control the marketing of unhealthy foods for children must be enacted and enforced. Furthermore, there must be an increase in taxation of unhealthy food products. Meanwhile, manufacturers of such foods must see it as their ethical duty to safeguard the health of the public by producing healthy products.
CONCLUSION
Children must necessarily come to mean. It can be done when we put our minds to it. All stakeholders have a duty to help them thrive now, whilst safeguarding their health for the future. It is a way to hold them dear to ourselves. Whilst darkness looms due to the prevalence of childhood obesity and NCDs with their accompanying morbidity (ill health) and mortality (death), a people who are determined to fight this public health threat can become the light to dispel the darkness.
Written by Dr. Stephen Ofotsu Ofoe
