The Troubled Topic: Poverty and Obesity

An Annotated Bibliography: Revision Version

Thesis: Although obesity is becoming one of the most salient issues in today’s society, the general publish sees it be even more low-income with low-income families because of their inability to provide healthy, nutrient filled foods to their families and in order to stop this we need to take a step to initiate it.

Crouse, Janice Shaw. Childhood Obesity. Children at Risk. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2010. 149-64. Print.

Children at Risk was an eye-opening source. It contains facts and information that kept the reader engaged. To start the study and engage the reader, it began with “its in the news… everybody’s is talking about it,” obesity that is. The way it started made it effective because it showed how this is becoming a major issue. What could be the underlying factor? Look no further, Children at Risk explains what and why the rising statistics for this new called disease. Also, it explained the main factor. Shaw explains that obesity causes at least 300,000 deaths a year. Obesity, a new so-called disease, has an effect on low-income families all around the world. When you are a low-income family, you are not able to make enough money to spend on food that is healthier so junk food becomes readily available to you. The problem begins when you have one bad habit that turns into a lifetime of bad habits and negative effects on your body. The leading negative effect on your body is obesity. This study concluded that if you began your life consuming harmful food, you have 5 times more of a chance to become obese and overweight in your adulthood. Since inadequate amounts of money means more junk food in the household, the correlation between childhood obesity and poverty is apparent through their childhood and continues into their adulthood.

I will be using this a primary source in my research. This book is a primary source because it contains important information. It is also scholarly. Children at Risk is scholarly because throughout the book it conducts different studies with different organizations. This creates credibility because the same results are seen from more one study. In every study, it is important to appeal to your audience.  The intended audience would be anybody interested in learning about the correlation between child obesity and poverty. All information is cited by authors and/or organizations at the end of each chapter. Lastly, this book is current and this is substantially important. It was published in 2010, meaning that the information and updated enough to use as research. Although this book doesn’t have visual charts as some of my primary sources do, it has a good amount of statistics which makes it primary. I will be using this in my argument because the chapter I read explains why poverty is exactly correlated to my research topic.

Dawson-McClure, Spring, et al. “Early Childhood Obesity Prevention In Low-Income, Urban Communities.” Journal Of Prevention & Intervention In The Community 42.2 (2014): 152-166. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2016.

Right from the beginning of this source, I was able to tell this again would be a primary source. The opening sentence states that “obesity rates are higher among racial/ethnic minorities and those from low-income communities (Dawson-McClure). That fits perfectly into my research topic. This article set apart from the others because it explained that low-income families are more likely to become obese, but there are ways to prevent it. Included in this article was prevention tips as well as well-guided information for my topic. From reading, one is able to understand that because low-income families sometimes are forced to eat unhealthy, they should increase the amount of exercise they do in order to stay healthy and in shape. It is important to try and get at least one hour of exercise daily, no matter how you finish that one hour. Dawson conducted a study with ParentCorps that explained the effects of living with low income and how it affects your health. Since it does have an impact, society needs to create another option to help your health. ParentCorps discovered that if parents work harder to develop more effective parenting skills, they can help intervene on obesity that may prevent low-income children being obese. The authors thesis is that since the two (obesity and poverty) have a direct correlation, we need to find a way to start preventing it because it is becoming a larger issue and if you start to prevent it earlier, the habit frequency can decrease.  Dawson-McClure supports their thesis by conjoining with ParentCorps to investigate and give options how to change parent’s styles to help their children.

When a source gives you a study, it is typically scholarly. For this one, in particular, it is scholarly because it contains a study and also credibility through the author, date, and publication date. Additionally, it contains data from organizations that allows the reader to trust the information they are giving. This source strengthens my research topic and argument because it not only gives support but also gives prevention ideas. One aspect of this article is the details that are included. Each section goes into depth about each topic that arises and I think that’s important because it gives the reader many points to consider when researching and understanding the topic. This source is significantly credible, containing a full list of references at the end. Another way to determine that is credible is by the authors being included and publisher/publishing date. If you were unsure if the information is credible, the reader is able to see exactly who obtained the information and where they obtained it from. I will be using this source in my argument because not only will I have the differences in countries, graphs, and charts, and support, I will now have prevention of obesity for these situations. This source is strengthening my research topic and argument it intensifies my argument by providing prevention ideas.

Demment, Margaret M., Jere D. Haas, and Christine M. Olson. “Changes In Family Income Status And The Development Of Overweight And Obesity From 2 To 15 Years: A Longitudinal Study.” BMC Public Health 14.1 (2014): 1-20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

This source is an article that examines and creates a study on the correlation between the status of family income and developing obesity. This study is comprehensive and a simple read. It makes it more beneficial to the reader because they can read it with enjoyment instead of a chore, which is exactly what this study accomplishes. Throughout the article, there is a lot of depth in the data for my research topic. The correlation between poverty and low-income families is exceedingly apparent in today’s societies. People who start consuming unhealthy food when their young, due to inadequate amounts of money, have a rough time recovering and typically the habit never goes away. It is continuous into future generations. In the United States, the analysis regarding income equality and health have skyrocketed. Longitudinal studies show information over a long period of time; this, in particular, showing that a change in one trajectory can make another trajectory change as well. The study is accurate because they examine and explain the various topics they measured. They take family income into account and also child BMI versus adult BMI and gender. In order to show the reader what information they discovered, they used charts. These charts contain numbers and percentages for each category and how it correlates to family income. The result of the study took what I believed was true. The findings from the study support the growing evidence that there is a correlation between family income and BMI and/or obesity. The thesis of this article is that the consequences of receiving little to no income have a negative affect on your family and the health and well-being of yourself because, with little money, you have a little amount to spend on healthy food.

This article is crucial to include in my research as a primary source. Because of the scholarly information, it allows the reader to take a stance on the topic. One is able to determine if a source is scholarly if it contains authors, publishers, and audience, which this source accommodates all of those. This piece of writing is timely and accurate to what I desire to learn. One important piece to know if it could be credible is authors. For this article, names and credentials of the authors are stated (Demment, Haas, Olson: Cornell University), which also have degrees in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, relating again to the topic I am researching. The section of this article that really stood out to me was the information given about the graphs and charts. Visuals allow me and most other people to really communicate with the author because it’s laid out simple enough for us to understand. Since this article is really a study makes it worthwhile, mostly because the study took place over 10 years. Longitudinal studies, although they are a length process, are rewarding and favorable because the one conducting the study gets profitable and accurate information. I will be adding this to my research because the facts given are relatable to my topic.

Gao, Yongqing, James Gordon, and Sun Wenjie. “Is Poverty Associated With Obesity Among American Children?.” Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America 111.22 (2014): E2237. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Mar. 2016.

Soon after I examined the opening sentence of this article, I concluded this source would fit my research. It began with explaining that there has been a decrease in obesity within high socio-economic status and an increase in obesity with low socio-economic status. An indirect relationship. This article goes more in depth than just poverty by explaining other causes such as race and physical activity, which I am not researching, but still works for my research. For this source, Gao conducted a study with the National Health and Nutrition Examination in order to draw and conclude the causes of obesity in the United States. The thesis of this source is that obesity is a troubled disease in our society today and although there are many causes, poverty seems to be one of the most dangerous. People are unable to feed their children adequate amounts of nutritional food. Gao supports my thesis because even though he goes in depth about other leading causes, he still determines that poverty is one of the leading causes of obesity.

I would declare this source by Gao credible, but not scholarly. This source is credible because it gives where he received his information and the author credentials. Although to me, this source is not scholarly because there is not date given, so I am not sure how current this information is. When I research, it is ideal to me to have data that is updated so that my reader will actually be able to learn something new about the topic. Additionally, over time information and studies can be adjusted and some information could not be accurate anymore. This article is shorter than others, so it is not as detailed as I would like it to be. I think it’s important to have multiple details for each point the author gives because it adds to the credibility. Overall, I will not be using this source in my research because it didn’t give me sufficient details to support it.

Lee, Hedwig, et al. “Longitudinal Associations Between Poverty And Obesity From Birth Through Adolescence.” American Journal Of Public Health 104.5 (2014): e70-e76. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

This longitudinal study directly dives into why and by how much being a part of a low-income family can affect your health. When you are a child that is living in a situation of low income, you are 1.6 times more likely to become obese. You might ask, why? Why does it matter how much money you have, doesn’t eating less make you skinnier? The answer to that is no. Low-income families have a more difficult time buying food because healthy food is more expensive and buying off the dollar menu is easier. A longitudinal study is needed to really see the effects between the two. When scientists conduct longitudinal studies on this topic, they receive stronger results because it shows the effects that your childhood can partake on the rest of your life. The main objective of this study was to examine the critical periods in the relationship between poverty and obesity (Lee). The main point that was concluded from this study is that the amount of money you earn has an effect on your health and the rest of your life because as you start habits early in life, they are hard to break.

Longitudinal studies that support my thesis will always be suitable to use for my research. This source, in particular, will be very helpful because there are charts given that visually show the data they collected and the information is updated. Having a source that is credible and scholarly is important, both of which this source fulfills. The authors, Lee and Hedwig have successfully conducted a study that is credible because not only do they have Ph.D., they collected information over a course of 15 years and conducted not only one but several experiments. The information is scholarly because there is a collaboration with multiple organizations, such as The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to conduct this study. This source is detailed and gives a lot of information. It gives enough information and details that you would be able to write a whole research paper on it. It is so important for one section of my paper because there is a lot of meaningful information. I will be using this as a primary source because it is written by people who have dedicated their jobs to collect accurate data. For my research topic, this source is very ideal.

Phipps, S. A., et al. “Poverty And The Extent Of Child Obesity In Canada, Norway And The United States.” Obesity Reviews 7.1 (2006): 5-12. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

This source compares the differences between child obesity for high, middle, and low-income families, which is beneficial for the reader because they are able to see how much of a difference being a low-income family has to your health. There is such a wide variety of information given in this source and I think it’s effective because then it narrows down to exactly what I am researching. It begins by comparing the US to Canada, then comparing those results to family incomes. To conduct the research, Phipps used a cross-sectional study or a study of data from a specific point in time. The research shows that child obesity is a more prevalent issue in the United States (20.7%). The results were identical to child obesity. Families in the United States are more likely to have children that are a victim of obesity. One thing that stood out about this source was that they established that chronic and long-term poverty has larger negative associations with obesity (Phipps). This was interesting and important to include in my research because this was the first source to examine that situation. The graphs and charts help establish their main point. The thesis of this source is that in the United States, the rate of obesity for poor families is much higher than families with higher incomes because of the sources they have available to them.

Phipps study and research are credible and scholarly. Phipps research was set apart from the others because it showed the difference and effects of long-term poverty versus short term poverty. I will include this source in my research topic because it fulfills my thesis, which supports and adds to my argument. Just like longitudinal studies, cross-sectional studies are just as effective. Phipps conducted research with different organizations in order to strengthen his thesis. This source is reliable because it contains a list of 46 references that was used when conducting and writing this article. Although it is a little outdated (2005), it is still reasonable to use because information is usually constant within a ten-year period. It is also scholarly because the publisher is in the Department of Economics for Dalhousie University. This primary source will fit into my argument because I want to explain the differences from the United States to other countries and how much different we are and the rates of obesity for us are much higher than others. I will use the graphs to and charts to show the specific differences between the three countries, United States, Canada, and Norway. I think if I compare us to other countries, the audience will take more from it because they will be able to realize that we need to make a change to better ourselves.

“Relationship Between Poverty and Obesity « Food Research & Action Center.” Food Research Action Center Relationship Between Poverty and Obesity Comments. Food Research & Action Center, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

This source distinguishes between the relationship of poverty and obesity, which is a problem in today’s society. The beginning of the source sets the tone by allowing the reader to know this article is specifically based on low-income families, although still giving information about both sides. Although obesity is affected by all of the society, it affects the low-income families harshly. The relationship between the two is stated as complicated by this article because the relationship can vary by gender, race-ethnicity, or age. Between 1986 and 2002, every year the BMI for low incomes families has risen (Relationship). This statistic was compared to highest income and education groups; which low-income beat out the other. This website differentiated the relationship between the past and the future: poverty and obesity. It touched all the main elements. One being that obesity rates increase over both high and low income, but more rapidly with high income. But on the other hand, in California poverty and obesity rates were directly proportional to each other. For this source, the thesis was that obesity is becoming a major issue in today’s society, but as of right now there’s not one major cause or one social status group that is affected heavier by this.

Although this source provides a lot of useful information, but it is not centered around my research topic because it doesn’t take a side. It begins with an article, then continues as a list of facts with statistics from both ends of the spectrum. I believe this is a reliable source, but not scholarly. It is reliable because it contains many useful facts that will guide someone’s opinions one way through the use of statistics. This source not scholarly. The information is recent, but not recent enough where you can create a research topic on it and use it for the next ten years. Scholarly articles are written by experts; the Food Research and Action Center is not an expert source. There are no authors given, which give no credit to whom this was written by or information gathered from. Also, there is no date of publication so it’s hard to conclude how recent it really is. Overall, I will not be using this source in my research because I want sources that have a scholarly material and that can allow the reader to really understand the side the research is taking.

Yue, Chen, et al. “Income Adequacy And Education Associated With The Prevalence Of Obesity In Rural Saskatchewan, Canada.” BMC Public Health 15.1 (2015): 1-7. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Mar. 2016.

Soon after beginning reading, I knew this source would not support my thesis. In the background section of the study, it states “socioeconomic status has been found to be inversely associated with the risk of obesity in developed countries” (Yue). Although it is not supporting my thesis, it is good to have another side of your argument so your research doesn’t seem biased. This source began with Canada’s obesity rates, the effects, and the leading causes. After it touched on Canada, it then switched to the United States. If this were not to end up discussing the United States, this source would not be related to my topic because I am researching specifically the United States. The main points of this study were to show the leading causes of obesity. Unlike my other sources, Yue conducted a study that showed gender, living location, and age had more of an impact on obesity than poverty. In order to support their study, they used charts containing sections and calculated numbers to which was the leading cause of obesity. The authors thesis of this source was the opposite of my previous sources. Yue concluded that although obesity is damaging to our society, the leading cause is not poverty because even when you have a low income they are ways to eat healthily and effectively.  Although this thesis won’t perfectly fit into my research, I will use it to show the other side of my research. This way the reader will be confident in what they’re analyzing and reading because I not only showed mostly one side, I showed the other side to the argument.

Yue’s study was credible, but not relevant to my study. It was credible because it included the author, the date, and the publisher. When readers who are trying to take a stance on an issue read studies like this, it is crucial to them to know where the information came from. If there are no references or publishers, they are more likely to believe that the information is not credible. At the end of this source, there is a full list of references and author details. The audience of this source would be adults, typically interested in obesity and the leading cause. Most adults are becoming interested in this topic since it is an upcoming major issue in our society. I will argue why I believe this is not the leading cause because it doesn’t support my thesis.

Response to Comments

1. I’m not sure how useful these adjectives are to describe your topic. I’m not even sure what you mean by “upcoming.” Otherwise good, though. Once I start to revise my paper, I agree with you. I don’t think these were the best two words to use so I changed it to “The Troubled Topic.” I think that fits better because recently this topic is causing a lot of trouble.
2. … today’s… For help with possessive nouns and apostrophe use please see section P4 of your handbook. I read P4 and after reading it, I realized I knew all that, I just don’t take the time to realize I didn’t go back and change it after I write.
3. Passive voice makes this wordy and indirect. See section W-3 of your handbook for help. Note that this is problematic for a couple of reasons:

• Who sees obesity this way? the general public? scientists? poor people? rich people?
• So what? If we find that obesity and poverty has this link that SOMEBODY sees, then what should we do about it?

            Taking this sentence out of the passive voice may help you figure out how to make your thesis more argumentative and exigent.

            When I was revising my thesis, I change it a lot and I think I made it better by making it more argumentative. I changed it to, “Although obesity is becoming one of the most salient issues in today’s society, the general publish sees it to be even more miserable   with low-income families because of their inability to provide healthy, nutrient filled foods to their families and in order to stop this we need to take a step to initiate it.” I think adding an ending about how to resolve it make it more effective and it’s almost a “call to action” to the reader.

4. Good summary. Thank you. I think it is important to write a good summary because then the reader knows exactly what the source was about, without actually reading it. Sometimes when the summary is inadequate it will confuse the reader.
5. This seems a bit backwards. I would think that the disease has the effect on low-income families, not the other way around. I agree. I think it was late when I was editing this and confused the two. I wish I realized that before, but I am glad I was able to change it now!
6. Thank you!
7. Good, thorough analysis. Thank you, sometimes for me analysis is hard. Although, I believe the time I took for this project was beneficial because I was proud of the grade I received.
8. Not necessarily. You can certainly find popular sources in the database. Oops, I made a mistake. Good thing I took that out before I gave the reader the wrong information. Thank you!
9. You’ll want to study up on apostrophe use. I looked at section P4. Also, I realized that sometimes I just don’t realize it because I thought word corrected that. I am glad I noticed that I physically have to go through it and make sure it is correct.

Reflection

When I heard we were writing an annotated bibliography, I automatically thought about all the topics I was interested. I thought about many topics because I was interested in a lot and so I picked one that I thought I would be able to create a good research question and annotated bibliography.

It is obvious that I picked the correlation between childhood obesity and poverty and if there really is a correlation between the two. I thought this would be a heated topic to research because it is becoming much more than what it used to be. When writing an annotated bibliography or any paper in general, it is important to write a good solid research question. Questions cannot be vague because it can confuse the reader. In this case, I have specifically chosen child obesity and poverty in the United States. I chose the United States because it is apparent that low-income countries have poverty and minimal food, so obesity is usually not an issue. Also, our research question needs to complex. A question that is not well written will just answer yes or no, but that is hard to write a complex and in-depth paper. Finally, the research question needs to be argumentative, not just a judgment.

After writing my annotated bibliography, I was quite pleased with my work. I usually struggle with the analysis and after reading my work, I believed I succeeded in that section. Analysis of the sources is important because it allows the reader to know what is going on without reading the source. Additionally, the reader can make judgments and take a side if they know a large amount of information. Overall, I was happy with the work I put in and I was able to see that hard work really does pay off.