Obesity In Philadelphia Essay

Philadelphia is my home town it is currently the fifth largest city in the U.S. as well as one of the oldest. Philadelphia is both racially and ethnically diverse with the African-American population being the largest at 42 percent; there are significant geographic clusters of populations by race/ethnicity. Philadelphia has 42 hospitals yet it is plagued by health issues that top the nation. The infant mortality rate in Philadelphia is the highest in the nation with the African-American population having the highest percentage. Philadelphia also has a significantly high percentage of mothers who haven’t received prenatal care in first trimester, 15.5 percent compared to the national percent of seven. Appropriate prenatal care optimizes the likelihood of a full-term pregnancy …show more content…
Obesity is caused by contributing factors such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, behaviors and genetics. Obesity reduces the quality of life and increases the risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke, as well as other disease conditions. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rates in Philadelphia are 58.5 per 100,000 persons, one out of three persons in the city has been diagnosed with hypertension, while 16 percent of adults have diabetes. National data show adult diabetes is more prevalent in Philadelphia than any other of the 11 largest U.S. counties; hypertension and CVD mortality, adult diabetes is most prevalent among non-Hispanic black in the city (Philadelphia Department of Public Health, 2014). Obesity is a risk factor that can have a direct relationship with disease percentages in the population in Philadelphia. A 2012 study revealed that healthy lifestyle changes such as healthy diet, exercising, maintaining a normal weight had a 66% lower risk of death than populations who did not maintain a healthy lifestyle (Nies & McEwen,