It is no question that New York City faces many health problems, the least of which is the issue of obesity. Currently 29% of adults in the five boroughs are either overweight or obese according to a NYC Health study. Even more shocking is that 20% of NYC kindergarteners are obese as well! Every fifth child aged 5-6 years old is obese. To me that is an incredibly troubling statistic. Obesity obviously causes many health issues later on in life as many children find it difficult to drop the unhealthy lifestyle habits as teenagers and adults. Childhood obesity makes hypertension and diabetes nearly inevitable for our city’s growing youth and also increases their risk for heart disease, stroke and cancer. Clearly we are depriving New Yorkers of easier lifestyles and even years off their lives with the cheap and convenient food NYC offers and promotes.
Another major issue we as New Yorkers face is sexually transmitted diseases. In 2014 it was estimated that 5,273 adult and adolescent New Yorkers were diagnosed with HIV and New York as a state ranks 5th among states with the number of HIV diagnoses. These statistics are alarming considering the nature of sex in NYC as a whole where virtually every adult is sexually active. Another statistic of concern is that 40% of teenagers who are sexually active are not wearing condoms or on birth control. This only serves to add fuel to the STD ‘wild fire’ that runs rampant through NYC. Sexually transmitted diseases, like obesity, can cause destruction to many people’s lives as their bodies begin to deteriorate if the disease is not treated in time or is untreatable all together. While STD’s are serious issue that affects our city, I believe there is a rather simple solution that would address both STD’s and obesity.
Obviously the more we as a population know, the better we can prepare for what we might encounter. This is why my solution to these two societal problems is increased health education. I went to public school through junior high school and I can’t recall a health class I was required to take. Even in high school my health class was an elective taken only by seniors. Clearly at the age of 18 or 19, seniors in high school have established and grown accustomed to a certain type of lifestyle with regard to diet, exercise and maybe even a sex life. Increased education is clearly the way to disseminate information to the public and allow them to make more educated decisions for themselves. We need to increase education elementary school students about diet and exercise because clearly the existing health ‘suggestions’ schools impose on students doesn’t stick with them. Public schools should add a health class to their curricula, perhaps only once or twice a week that would test the children’s decision making and assure that they are well informed as to the dangers of unhealthy food and a immobile, sedentary lifestyle. By starting to inform NYC students from a young age, this will no doubt promote healthier lifestyles later on in life. The current ‘food pyramid’ and ’30 minutes of exercise a day’ posters that hang in school hallways just aren’t cutting it as we as New Yorkers boast a 17% obesity rate among 10 to 17 year olds. We see that with increased education, the students have improved their scores on standardized tests, so why would we not expect the same kind of improvement when analyzing mandatory health classes. With regard to STD’s, clearly even the increased availability and convenience of NYC Condoms hasn’t had the tremendous impact we expected at its launch. This is why we must expose our teens and adults to the risks and dangers of unprotected sex. Sexual health classes must be more available and possibly even required for NYC’s teenagers and adults in high schools and at the workplace. I believe this would increase awareness and maybe serve as a scare tactic that would eventually decrease the STD rate in NYC.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/living/obesity.shtml
http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/stateprofiles/pdf/new_york_profile.pdf
https://www.nycptc.org
