Childhood Obesity Epidemic Case Study

Introduction Childhood obesity is rapidly becoming a global epidemic affecting over four million children alone in the United States. Obesity is the top healthcare priority in the United States at this time as described by the United States Surgeon General. And, although the obesity epidemic is receiving increased attention in recent years, an approach that is “consistent, integrated, and aggressive” has not yet been reached. Lifestyle changes are often difficult to implement and are not consistent with adequate long term results.
Bariatric surgery has become quite popular in recent years to combat the growing epidemic with “adolescent bariatric surgical case volumes doubled from approximately 800 cases in 2003 to 1600 procedures in 2009”
There are several procedures that fall under bariatric surgery including gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, and LAP band. Each procedure that qualifies as bariatric surgery achieves weight loss through reducing the size of the stomach by resecting and re-routing the stomach and small intestines, removal of a portion of the stomach, or a gastric band placed around the top of the stomach. Studies show significant effects are seen in a majority of the adults that have bariatric surgery including not only weight loss, but reversal of weight related health problems such as diabetes, hypertension, and improvement in cardiovascular and respiratory function. However, in the past decade, bariatric surgery is increasingly considered for the treatment of children and adolescents with obesity. But, few studies have been or are being conducted on the efficacy and safety of bariatric surgery in this age
Ort Library, named after the sole principal benefactor, was opened in 1976 with the primary “mission to support the academic programs of Frostburg State University” and its students. The library contains “over half a million items and subscribes to more than 80 electronic databases providing access to 40,000 full-text electronic journals”. Due to the libraries comprehensive database with reliable and accurate resources, the database presented an appropriate database for this analysis of a clinical question. Search terms used when conducting this research and analysis on the clinical question of, is bariatric surgery, when conducted during childhood, an effective and safe form of weight loss on the Lewis J. Ort library database was quite specifically “bariatric surgery” and “adolescents.” This database resulted in several hundred if not thousands of articles on the topics of bariatric surgery and adolescents. Because the results were quite numerous and difficult to sort through, filters such as the full text and scholarly or peer reviewed articles options were helpful to limit the search results found by the