Assignment #3

I thought the most surprising statistic on that list was the fact that the average C-sections per live birth was 25.7 which is drastically higher than I had assumed. I would have guessed that the number would have been closer to 5% in the States, but it turns out that the U.S. has an even higher rate of 31.1 C-Sections per live birth. I was also surprised that countries such as Belgium, Norway, and Denmark had the highest ratings in some of the categories. They mostly dominated the medical staff statistics which I thought the U.S. would have done much better in considering they are the country that spends the most money on health related materials.

I thought the least surprising was obviously the U.S. at the top of the obesity statistic. America has been know and is becoming more known for its obese population which is why we clearly dominate this category more than doubling the worldwide average of 15.1%. Japan seemed to be doing very well in this category which was surprising with only 3.4% of an obese population. The U.S. clearly needs to do something about this obesity problem which is happening, but in my opinion not on a large enough scale. Another surprising statistic was that the life expectancy in the U.S. is lower than the worldwide average by .9 years. I would have thought with the U.S. having such medical technology and being well above the worldwide average in many medical averages the life expectancy would be at least above the average.

In my opinion the greatest impact on public health would be the obesity dilemma because it affects such a wide variety of things that eliminating it would mean eliminating countless other problems. Obesity puts a person at a much higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and many other health related problems. Eliminating obesity would eliminate all of these problems and therefore would save hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of dollars. There is nothing healthy about obesity and the problems associated with it are life threatening which makes it one of the deadliest problems in America. Obesity is due to inactivity and poor nutrition. This could be a simple problem to solve if everyone would follow a healthy lifestyle. Daily exercise and a reduction of calories would make an enormous difference in the majority of people and make their overall lives much healthier. This would also help bring the U.S. highest in the life expectancy statistic. My proposal is that we make people aware of the dangers of obesity and also make them aware of all the easy ways that this dilemma can be avoided. With this knowledge people will hopefully make minor changes to their lifestyles that can have a big impact on the overall public health of America.