Understanding and Acting on the Growing Childhood and Adolescent Weight Crisis: A Role for Social Work (Report‪)‬

The focus of national public health efforts has begun to shift away from the treatment of adulthood obesity to the prevention of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity (Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh, & Merchant, 2005). In 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Healthy People 2010 initiative placed national emphasis on child and adolescent weight status, identifying overweight and obesity as one of 10 leading indicators of public health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2010). Further national efforts were undertaken in 2002 when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) was charged by Congress with the development of prevention action steps (IOM, 2004). These efforts represent national attempts to achieve gains in childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity outcomes. Although there is evidence that national obesity rates are stabilizing in some segments of the populations (Flegler, Carroll, Ogden, & Curtin, 2010), it is important for social work professionals to recognize that there is still much ground to be gained in the battle to reduce childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. The increase of overweight and obesity among school-age children, and subsequently adults, is influenced by a myriad of factors (CDC, 2008). Described in different terminology, as a multisystem disease in the medical field (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002) and a multisystemic social problem within the social sciences (Eliadis, 2006), what is clear is that the etiology of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity rests at both the public health and the individual levels. This article seeks to place the causes, impacts, and ameliorations of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity within the context of ecological systems and current prevention efforts.