Obesity is the Symptom of a Much Greater Social Malaise

Presenter Information

Derrick Connor, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Larissa Chapman, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Nancy Christianson, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Courtney Fruchey, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

10-4-2018 2:00 PM

End Date

10-4-2018 3:30 PM

Student's Major

Family Consumer Science

Student's College

Allied Health and Nursing

Mentor's Name

David Bissonnette

Mentor's Department

Family Consumer Science

Mentor's College

Allied Health and Nursing

Second Mentor's Name

Brooke Burk

Second Mentor's Department

Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services

Second Mentor's College

Allied Health and Nursing

Description

Objective: We hypothesized that obesity is a symptom among other social malaises that is primarily associated with the breakdown of the American family.

Methods: A systematic web-search of scholarly and peer reviewed articles using MEDLINE, PUBMED, ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER and GOOGLE was completed on family integrity in relations to obesity, depression, child abuse, substance abuse, divorce, single parent families, screen time sedentarism, family mealtime disruption, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Results: The cause of obesity is not medical in origin, but rather a complex system of societal disorders resulting primarily from the disruption in family integrity. Anxieties, depression, substance and child abuse, obesity and a rising prevalence in STIs has emerged from the deterioration of nuclear family health, ultimately from divorce and increased prevalence of single parent-families. The main vectors driving the obesity epidemic is family deterioration from which emerges growing sedentarism in youth, lack of family mealtimes, poor quality nutrition, dual parent employment, single-parent poverty, and decreased prevalence of breastfeeding.

Conclusion: The current rates of obesity presents more as a symptom of a greater societal malaise that is primarily driven by poor quality family environments. The deterioration of the family environment has led to single parent households, poorer quality nutrition, increased rates of depression, STIs, child abuse, obesity and substance abuse. Moreover, the failure of the medical community to properly address the obesity epidemic as a social crisis rather than a medical one has only further deepened the US healthcare crisis and delayed its recovery.