I have decided to change the topic of my paper to anorexia instead of obesity because obesity was covered in class and I find anorexia to be a much more interesting topic. It might not be as pressing of an issue because it affects a much smaller number of people, but it is still large enough to be a public health issue. Obesity affects many people and causes some of the most devastating diseases that are currently a problem, but anorexia is a more devastating illness for the person and for the family.
Problem Definition: Anorexia is currently a serious problem in females between the ages 12 and 25 that has both psychosocial and physical effects on the person affected.
When a person has anorexia it is a very serious disorder and affects the family as well as the patient. But the person affected is not always a patient because they do not always seek medical attention. When a person has anorexia he or she is usually in denial and will not accept the fact which makes it hard for medical attention to become part of the process. My report is mainly going to focus on anorexia in females because about 90% of the people that have anorexia are females. My report will also focus on the ages between 12 and 15 because 95% of anorexic cases occur between those ages. It is a very important issue for teenagers because it is the third most common chronic illness among teenagers.
Anorexia is very much a psychological problem because people with anorexia often have internal problem with confidence and feeling worthless. They seem as if they have to do everything they can to be perfect and impress others while inside they feel inadequate. This inadequacy comes from the fact that they think that if they are not perfect they have failed. This has an effect on the family as well. The parents are often very controlling and want their children to be perfect and the children are obedient and strive to be everything their parents want them to be. It is not always their parents who want them to be perfect but there is usually a figure that pushes them to the limit, but it is usually the parents or sometimes an athletic coach.
The physical effects of anorexia are far more obvious because they can be seen as the illness becomes more serious. The deprivation of food leads to a severe lack of calories which leaves the body no choice but to begin consuming itself for calories. This is only the beginning of the illness and once enough weight is lost the illness begins to take severe and long lasting tolls on the body which can last a lifetime. Medical treatment of anorexia can be very difficult because many are being treated against their will because they have a fear of food and gaining weight. This makes it extremely difficult for them to gain weight and continue with a healthy lifestyle.
Steven,
ReplyDeleteGood start with the problem definition, and nice job with addressing a specific population (12-15 year old females). Adding a time frame, geographic location and a context (i.e. is the incidence/prevalence increasing?) would certainly make it a stronger problem definition. One way to find this out would be to look at health agencies (like the CDC) that track anorexia numbers, and see if the numbers are worsening. With that you can then expand your problem definition to something like this "There has been an increasing incidence of anorexia among girls aged 12 to 15 living in the US during the years 1990 to 2000."
If those numbers are hard to find, then another way to approach it is to state the disparity in rates between boys and girls (i.e. "From 1990 to 2000, the incidence rates of anorexia in girls in the US aged 12-15 were three times higher than that of boys in the same age category"). Your focus in the paper then would be to figure out why girls are more easily afflicted with the disease than boys.
But definitely a good start! Do let me know if you have any other questions.