In Latin America, obesity has migrated from the middle classes to the poor classes and is seen more and more frequently in children.
By: Ricardo Pérez Cuevas.
Studies worldwide determine that between 1975 and 2010 the proportion of children from 2 to 5 years with obesity increased from 5 to 15%.Children who grow overweight have a greater risk of developing diabetes and are the social and biological factors that occur from pregnancy and during the first five years of age that influence this.
Among the multiple social factors that contribute to this increase are diets with food of high caloric density, little physical exercise and the lack of health education of parents or caregivers.In Mexico an additional factor is added, the lack of drinking water.The lack of access to water causes that in the country more soda is drink than anywhere else: 180 liters per person per year, well above the second place, the United States (118 liters).
People with limited resources are more vulnerable to diabetes and their complications and this occurs mainly because they have lower income.Healthy foods are more expensive, the price of accessing health controls is greater and making changes in lifestyle, such as going to the gym, are more difficult.The lower school level also influences the full understanding of the problem and health education is more distant.
Within the biological factors, the mother's feeding for the development of diabetes in the child greatly influences.A poor diet of the pregnant woman affects the nutrition of the fetus, which develops an adaptive response that privileges oxygenation and nutrients to the brain and reduces this contribution to the development of its other organs.When the body adapts to functioning with an input of insufficient nutrients and exposes it to additional risks, such as overweight, the child runs the risk of contracting diabetes.
When a person or family lacks medical consultations, in many cases it indicates that the family lacks resources to move or cover the expenses associated with the consultation.This, in chronic diseases such as diabetes, causes complications to appear more quickly and derive in a negative circle for the patient and family since the most complex treatments are in turn more expensive.
It is necessary to provide greater diffusion to Latin Americans about this great epidemiological change to prevent diabetes in children.On the other hand, it is also necessaryHealth start detection activities.
For example, until recently, children were considered mainly type 1 diabetes, while type 2 diabetes was diagnosed in people over 40 years.At present, cases of type 2 diabetes are increasingly frequent in children and adolescents.In Mexico, it has been reported that between 1990 and 2005, the number of patients aged 15 to 19 years old, with type 2 diabetes was quintupled after 411 to 1905 cases per year.However, the detection of type 2 diabetes in children and mainly in adolescents is not part of public health programs.
For all this, it is reasonable to conclude that the issue of diabetes and its consequences, especially in low -income people, is an issue that Latin America governments must prioritize.