The evidence-based review article named “Physical Examination Findings among Children and Adolescents with Obesity” asks what are the common problems that come out from a special physical examination for the children and adolescents that suffer from obesity.
The main issue that is discussed in the article is the importance and crucial need for adolescents and children with obesity to be specially examined in order to prevent health issues and complications that are more likely to happen with children and adolescents suffering from obesity than with other children. The main issue is to point out the significance of the specially-oriented medical examination of children with obesity. Such examination appears as a very helpful tool for preventing health problems of children with obesity because their medical data shows different results when compared to the children and adolescents who do not suffer from obesity.
The article is divided into sections that correspond to different groups of medical illnesses according to different body parts. The sections of the article are named “Vital signs,” “Head, Eye, Ear, Nose, And Throat Examination,” “Chest and Back,” “Gastrointestinal,” etc. These sections describe particular body parts and/or organs that are to be examined during the medical process.
The results of the systematic review are valid, proven, accurate, and precise.
The final results show that children and adolescents who suffer from obesity have more chances to obtain different illnesses and health problems than the general population who do not suffer from obesity.
The results of the review can be applied to my practice because they point out how to treat patients with obesity better and what are the best ways to look for the complications of obesity during the examination.
The review is founded by Sarah Armstrong, MD, Suzanne Lazorick, MD, and Joseph A. Skelton, MD.
There are various strengths of the review discussed here. First and most of all it is very panoptic. The review grasps a variety of different physical problems that often appear because of obesity, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and problems with digestion. The review suggests how it is better to look for these problems and how they can be observed during the screening. Most importantly, the review provides guidelines for those medical workers, who are to warn patients (children and adolescents) and their parents on the dangerous influence of obesity on the general condition of the health of a patient. The review implies that due to the fact that obesity became an enormously widespread problem in the USA, it can be traced in many patients. These patients should be warned of the possible consequences of obesity in order to prevent its negative impact on the health and productivity of the whole population.
When a doctor knows what to look for and how to look for it, meaning special procedures and most often encountered complications of obesity, it is easier to prevent obesity from the continuous eventual spread that can result in poorer health rates among people. The received data that proves the dangerous influence of obesity on children’s health can serve as an ultimate argument for parents to make their children exercise in sports and stay on a diet or, in more difficult cases, be treated with medications or even surgical involvement. It is highlighted that even though obesity itself is neither a disease nor an illness—like tobacco smoking or improper sleeping—it causes real illnesses, such as diabetes or heart disease because it affects all parts of the human body, bloodstream, organs, breathing, skin, etc. According to the reviewed materials and experiments, it is evaluated in the review that children and adolescents who suffer from obesity must pay particular attention to personal hygiene, spend their lives actively, and consume healthy food. Even though obesity becomes more and more widespread (it is reported that 1 out of 13 children suffers from obesity), the variety of presented illnesses that can be caused either directly or indirectly by obesity should warn people from neglecting this problem as not serious (Armstrong, Lazorick, & Hampl, 2016).
There are no particular weaknesses, disadvantages, or failures in the provided review. It is well-organized, argumentative, and supported by the facts review based on precise and accurate data. The review is not limited in any way. Opposite to that, this review is very panoptic and serves its purpose with a skillful mastery. The objective of the review was accomplished completely.
I believe it will help me greatly in my future work. I particularly liked the way the information was presented with no distractions, extra technical data, or redundant materials. All the information is provided with a high level of professionalism. The content was informative as well because it addressed a serious issue that needs to be considered. It has been well known for almost a decade that obesity is a serious problem in the US. However, as I consider people who suffer from obesity as well as their relatives—especially parents—if these people are children or adolescents and do not treat obesity with a required seriousness, further problems will ensue. People still widely discuss obesity as a problem of looks rather than a problem of health (Daniels, Arnett. & Eckel, 2005).
On the other side and at the same time. children who suffer from obesity are shameful to be treated as ill people because it only decreases the level of their self-esteem, which is low even without it (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014). The review that was discussed, evaluated and explained in this critical study regards various medical complications in order to draw a larger picture of the consequences of obesity when it is ignored. I think that when people suffer from an illness they do not ignore medical prescriptions and advice. But with children who suffer from obesity and their parents, it happens that so many of them don’t even make an attempt to go to a doctor without prior serious symptoms (Dietz, 2004). Obesity is not an illness, but it is a serious condition that could easily bring real and serious illnesses. The review clearly and statistically proves that children and adolescents with obesity are more likely to suffer from hundreds of different medical complications that could not only worsen their life but shorten it as well.
The article is useful for my future practice because it introduces the problem of obesity as a serious medical condition that could result in creating complex health problems, therefore pointing to the necessity of its prevention. Children and adolescents who suffer from obesity are particularly shy because most of them are shameful of their problem and tend to ignore it. That is why children and adolescents with obesity should be served carefully and, through their parents, be informed that what they suffer is not just a problem of looks, but a condition that could initiate health problems.
References
Armstrong, S., Lazorick, S., & Hampl, S. (2016). Physical examination findings among children and adolescents with obesity: An evidence based review. Pediatrics. 137(2), 44-50.
Daniels, S., Arnett, D., & Eckel, R., (2005).Overweight in children and adolescents: pathophysiology, consequences, prevention, and treatment. Physiology Monthly. 111, 200–201.
Dietz, W., (2004). Overweight in childhood and adolescence. New England Journal of Medicine. 350, 854-856.
Ogden, C., Carroll, M., Kit, B., & Flegal, K., (2014). Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association, 311(8), 808-813.