The Prevalence Of Obesity And Obesity - 1196 Words

The prevalence of obesity has increased significantly in populations worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) (2015) estimated that 400 million adults were considered obese worldwide and is projected to double by the year 2015. Traditionally, obesity is associated with high caloric intake and lower levels of physical activity in high income Western countries. However, low and middle income countries are increasingly becoming obese and becoming a major public health concern in regards to quality of life and life expectancy (WHO, 2015). Many serious health conditions in the developed world are associated with obesity, including stroke, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, certain cancers, and cardiovascular†¦show more content†¦Stress and illness diffe by ethnicity/race as differences in exposure to social and environmental stressors, culture strategies for coping with stress, biological vulnerability to stress, and perception of stress as an i llness are all plausible biological components of obesity, although not fully understood (Caprio et al., 2008). Genetic Factors Ethnicity and race may have underlying genetic components that may be associated with the development of obesity as various regions of the human genome suggest harboring genes increase the risk of obesity (Akabas, Lederman, Moore, 2012). Additionally, metabolic comorbidities in obesity may be related to different patterns of fat distribution. For example, African Americans have less visceral and hepatic fat than white and Hispanic individuals (Akabas, Lederman, Moore, 2012; Caprio et al., 2008). Racial and ethnic differences in metabolic rate have found that differences in fat free mass or organ mass have been shown not to contribute to weight gain among certain populations (Caprio et al., 2008). Also, differences in insulin secretion and responses are different among ethnic and racial groups. Hispanic and African Americans have shown to have lower insulin sensitivity compared to Caucasians (Akabas, Lederman, Moore, 2012; Caprio et al., 2008). However, African Americans have higher circulating insulin levels than