Government and school community member perception on childhood obesity prevention in the primary school settings of Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

Introduction: Childhood obesity is increasing in the Southeast Asian region, including in the nation of Brunei Darussalam. Within the public health focus on obesity prevention, specific settings, including primary schools, have been singled out as suitable sites for action. Recognizing that stakeholders are, in their various roles, producers of policy or implementers of practice, the purpose of this study in Brunei was to establish a baseline for interventions as well as to establish strengths and limitations in the current practice.
 Methods: Semi-structured interview with government and school community stakeholders was conducted, and transcriptions were thematically analyzed.
 Results: Three themes emerged from the data. The first theme was “children’s eating habits today = healthy adult population tomorrow;” many of the stakeholders believed that, if healthy eating is not practiced from an early stage, this can lead to the development of harmful diet-related diseases in the future. The second theme was “barriers to effectively addressing the issue of childhood obesity;” all were able to identify barriers such as workforce issues to address obesity prevention and health promotion activities. The third theme was “parental responsibility for children’s diet and physical activity habits.” The majority of respondents believed that parents are responsible for the rise in childhood obesity in Brunei.
 Conclusions: The widespread ethos of personal responsibility for health behaviors has resulted in policies having a heavy emphasis on individual health behavior management and blame for the problem being directed primarily at parents. This individualization of the problem of childhood obesity is a barrier to the planning and implementation of ecological interventions.

RETRACTED: Barriers and facilitators of childhood obesity prevention policies: A systematic review and meta-synthesis

“…This review draws on the findings of 22 studies with a total of 1,039 participants. Studies have been performed on different settings of healthcare centers ( n = 5) ( 48 , 50 , 55 , 56 , 60 ), schools ( n = 8) ( 39 , 49 , 51 , 53 , 54 , 57 , 58 , 64 ), stakeholders offices ( n = 4) ( 47 , 59 , 61 , 66 ), school and stakeholders offices ( n = 2) ( 65 , 67 ), and two studies were conducted online ( 52 , 63 ). The identified papers reported research conducted in 12 countries: the United States ( n = 6) ( 55 , 61 , 63 , 64 , 66 , 67 ), South Korea ( n = 1) ( 48 ), the United Kingdom ( n = 2) ( 49 , 57 ), Sweden ( n = 1) ( 50 ), Ireland ( n = 1)( 51 ), Malaysia ( n = 2) ( 47 , 52 ), Brunei ( n = 1) ( 53 ), Columbia ( n = 1) ( 54 ), Australia ( n = 2) ( 56 , 60 ), Saudi Arabia ( n = 1) ( 39 ), the Netherlands ( n = 1) ( 58 , 59 ), Africa ( n = 1) ( 62 ), and Canada ( 65 ).…”

Stakeholders perspectives of barriers and facilitators of childhood obesity prevention policies in Iran: A Delphi method study

“…Therefore, through appropriate planning and policies, and especially designing programs to increase parental awareness and attitude towards the complications of childhood obesity and methods to prevent it, these barriers can partially be solved. Similar to our study, other studies identified lack of staffing [ 28 ], financial constraints at the implementation level [ 26 , 41 ], and at the family level [ 33 , 42 ] as the barriers to this policy.…”

“…Furthermore, taxing unhealthy foods [ 22 , 23 ], subsidizing some healthy foods [ 22 , 24 ], and using food guide labels on the packages [ 25 ] are among the main recommended strategies. Other suggested strategies to prevent obesity among children and adolescents include: teaching nutritional facts to children and adolescents, holding workshops for parents, supporting intervention policies [ 26 – 28 ], and running social health-related campaigns. For example, a campaign entitled "Say No To Fast Food" was run in Iran in 2017.…”

“…The impact of parents on childhood and adolescent obesity prevention policies has been studied in various studies, and it has been shown that parental involvement has a key role [ 28 , 36 ]. In this regard, the results of the present study were in line with the studies that showed insufficient knowledge and awareness [ 29 ], difficulty in the effective use of children's health services [ 40 ], improper use of vehicles [ 18 ], and lack of participation in intervention programs [ 26 ] are some important barriers in advancing the childhood obesity prevention policies.…”

Stakeholder analysis of childhood obesity prevention policies in Iran

“…In this regard, the results of a study in Brunei to check the strengths and weaknesses of COP policies through semi-structured interviews with the government and school stakeholders indicated that most stakeholders blamed parents for the problem of childhood obesity. This individualization of the problem from the perspective of stakeholders was identified as a barrier to the planning and implementation of relevant COP interventions [ 15 ]. As far as the researchers investigated, so far, no comprehensive study has been carried out to identify the role of key stakeholders and actors related to COP in Iran.…”