Amanda Motyka, Conner Bilinski and Jessica Vengersammy

Abstract:

Obesity has been a common issue throughout the United States for years and there are millions of individuals still struggling with their weight today. The majority of these people that are struggling have dealt with these issues for most of their lives, starting at a young age. An individuals’ childhood certainly plays a role in whether or not they develop obesity and that is what we are looking into. We are researching identifying factors that affect obesity in Middle Schoolers across a variety of states nationwide, including nutritional habits, amount of physical activities and screen time, and mental status. Based on the article, “Childhood Obesity in Developing Countries: Epidemiology, Determinants, and Prevention”, the authors indicated that reduced physical activity and an increase in caloric intake determines obesity. In addition, those living in more urban areas are prone to getting obese due to the lack of open spaces and parks and parents often working a lot with less time to provide proper nutrition. After running our aggregate data, we found similar results with our determining variables of not eating fruits and vegetables, drinking soda, not enough physical activity and lack of sleep.