Childhood Obesity in the CARICOM Region

Abstract
Health complications are on the rise amongst adults in the Caribbean regions. This is a circumstance that has slowly crept into reality. Research papers in the past have leant towards different directions as to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ these individuals suffer variable health problems. This research paper will target the ‘when’ aspect of these degenerative health issues, and attempt to proactively curtail the appearance of these problems. It has been found that health complications that appear in adult life begin to develop in childhood (Henry 2001), and a main objective of this research paper is to decipher the impact of childhood obesity on this matter. The World Health Organisation has estimated that in 2010, 43 million children (35 million in developing countries) worldwide were estimated to be overweight and obese, and that a further 92 million were at risk of overweight. The increase of childhood obesity in the Caribbean is a health problem due to the complications among children, which have consequences that can be produced in adult life such as non-transmittable chronic disease. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to face this problem in an effective way in order to achieve the best results in a short period of time. In this research we present actions that a preventative health plan should include for the Caribbean community. Among these actions is the active participation of the individual in gradually increasing moderate to intense physical activity, aimed at simultaneously achieving an awareness of healthy eating habits.

Keywords- Child Obesity, Interventions