Obesity Is A Serious Threat To The Future, People Must Care More

Muhammad Fajri, a Tangerang man who weighs 300 kg, is known to have been obese since he was 8 years old. (Twitter/@AboutTNG)

JAKARTA - Residents of Pedurenan, Karang Tengah, Tangerang City, Muhammad Fajri (27) went viral because of obesity, and have a body weight of up to 300 kg. As a result of this condition, Fajri can only sit and lie down, he can no longer do activities like youth in general.

In fact, to take him to the hospital, officers had to do extra treatment by breaking into the door of the house and lifting Fajri using a forklift.

This case must be learned that obesity or overweight is not a trivial problem. Moreover, Fajri is known to have been obese since the age of 8 years.

Actually, if there is an effort to prevent it from an early age, the problem can be solved. Need mutual attention, especially from parents or family. They must understand obesity is a disease that can cause complications to various other comorbid diseases such as heart, stroke, diabetes mellitus, and high blood pressure.

Patients with obesity, as reported by the Ministry of Health page, also have the risk of experiencing respiratory blockage while sleeping. And, can trigger prostate gland cancer for men as well as breast and cervix cancer for women.

Data World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017 alone said more than nine million people die each year due to obesity. The World Obesity Federation even estimates that 51 percent of the world's population will be obese by 2035.

"It's very worrying to see the level of obesity increase as early as possible among children and adolescents," said World Obesity Federation President Louise Baur.

In Indonesia, the conditions are the same. Prevalence data for obesity in the population aged 18 years and over tends to increase from only 11.7 percent in 2010 to 21.8 percent in 2018. Then, it rose again during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"From CDC (Centers for Disease Control) data, in patients in hospitals, it can be seen that there was a 2-fold increase before the pandemic to the pandemic," said the Ministry of Health's Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (P2PTM), Elvieda Sarinati during a media meeting with the Ministry of Health on March 2.

Of course, the best treatment is to take precautions. Obesity is not a disease that appears suddenly. Identification is easy because there are signs that are visible.

For example, in children aged 8, usually have the characteristics of a relatively short neck, round face, embezzling cheeks, turquoise stomach, internal groins attached to each other and frictionted, and have a convex shoulder.

Another characteristic, as written by Ai Care, is that girls with obesity usually experienceccretion earlier. Meanwhile, in men, the chest is slightly carrierd, the breasts get bigger, and the penis shrinks due to being covered in fat.

If these signs begin to appear, immediately rearrange the child's diet. Make sure what children consume is healthy foods with balanced nutrition, such as vegetables and fruits, carbohydrates, milk, and high protein.

Change snacks that contain high sugar or packaged snacks with fresh fruit that contains sugar and natural fiber. Provide healthy snacks twice a day between meals to prevent hungry children from looking and eating unhealthy snacks.

Which is no less important, invite children to do physical activities by exercising regularly or playing outside the home.

There are many things that can cause children to become obese, but mainly due to lack of physical activity and too much calorie intake due to eating and unhealthy lifestyles. It's nice to eat sweet foods that contain high fat and sugar are also one of the causes of obesity in children," wrote Ai Care.

The ideal weight of children aged 6-12 years according to the CDC is:

6 years: 21 kg weight, 116 cm height

7 years: 23 kg weight, 122 cm height

8 years: 26 kg weight, 128 cm height

9 years: weight 29 kg, height 134 cm

10 years: 32 kg weight, 139 cm height

11 years: 36 kg weight, 144 cm height

12 years: 41 kg weight, 149 cm height

6 years: 20 kg weight, 115 cm height

7 years: 23 kg weight, 122 cm height

8 years: 26 kg weight, 128 cm height

9 years: weight 29 kg, height 133 cm

10 years: 33 kg weight, 138 cm height

11 years: 37 kg weight, 144 cm height

12 years: 42 kg weight, 152 cm height

The standard deviation is about 2-3 kg. If the child weighs less or more 2-3 kg than this figure, then it is still considered ideal.

In adults, the body mass index (IMT) can be checked using a weight formula in kilograms divided into height in meters. The results:

The government through Permenkes 71 of 2015 has actually made a mechanism for preventing disease. Either through health promotion, screening or early detection, or handling cases.

Health promotion can be through information or education on various platforms regarding a healthy lifestyle including not smoking, enough physical activity, healthy diet, to awareness for early detection.

However, it is not yet very effective. As Elvieda admits, there are still a number of challenges in dealing with obesity, including support for multi-sectors that are not yet optimal.

Depending on the government alone, of course, people also have to actively participate, at least by changing the view that being fat is not something funny or adorable, but the potential for obesity. So that later public awareness will appear to always be vigilant and there will be no more cases like Muhammad Fajri.