1.0 Research Problem
In recent years, many countries have encountered the problems of obesity. “Globesity” has become a more serious problem than global warming. Globesity is a newly invented term to describe the problem of increase obesity rate worldwide. The U.S particularly ranks the 1st in terms of childhood and adulthood obesity. 35% of Adults and 15% of young people have the problem of obesity according to the National Center For Health Statistics(Ogden, CarrollFryar&Flegal, 2015). As compared with adults, it is believed that childhood obesity has more research value. It is largely because through reducing childhood obesity rate, adulthood obesity can be significantly reduced thereafter. Hence, the major research problem is identified to be obesity-related lifestyles and behaviors among pre-school children.
2.0 Research Objective and Question
The objective of this research is to investigate the obesity-related lifestyles, diet and behaviors among pre-school children. There are basically two research questions in guiding the research direction as follows,
1. To Investigate the relationship beween family background and childhood obesity rate through clustering analysis.
2. To identify obesity-related lifestyles, behaviors and diets among pre-school children
2.1 Research Significance and anticipated outcome
Through conducting this research, it is more feasible for researchers to understand major causes which leads to the problem of childhood obesity. The outcome of the research can be used to advise parents to adjust the children’s lifestyles, diets and sleep behaviors in order to prevent childhood obesity. Besides, private sector can also find business opportunities in correcting or addressing children’s obesity-related behaviors and lifestyles.
3.0 Data Collection
3.1 Data collection method
The general trend of the increase in childhood obesity in the U.S can be illustrated through the data published by National Center of Health Statistics as shown in Fig 1. The data cited can be used to reflect why it is necessary to conduct the research.
Source Credit: Fryar, C. D., Carroll, M. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2018).
Fig 1: Trends in Obesity among Children and adolescents aged 2-19 years by age
From fig 1, it is not difficult to observe that from 1963 to 2014, the obesity rate among children and teenagers in the U.S is increasing extremely fast. In general, it increases from 4% to 23%. Thus, it is necessary for researchers to thoroughly investigate the causes which leads to the increasing childhood obesity rate. In table 1, according to the statistics published by CDC, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged from 2 to 19 years is also illustrated very clearly. It can be shown that 17.2% of the selected participants are identified to have the problem of obesity.
Basically, data are cited from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , a reputable and authoritative health protection agency of the U.S. CDC is dedicated to protecting and promoting quality of life through disease control and prevention. Official data and information can be retrieved from the homepage of the CDC (CDC.gov). Researchers from CDC are responsible for conducting researches or investigating causes that potentially threaten people’s health. In regards to overweight and obesity rate, each year CDC researchers will update new data and analyze causes that lead to the obesity rate. Thus, the data published from CDC homepage can be cited as secondary data and used for this cluster analysis as the quality and validity of the data can be guaranteed.
Table 1: Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 2–19 years, by sex: United States, 1971–1974 through 2013–2014
Source Credit: Fryar, C. D., Carroll, M. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2018)
3.2 Interpretation of Data
The first Part of data cited from CDC.gov is interpreted into a more readable format as shown in Table 2 below (See Appendix).