Obesogenic environments: environmental approaches to obesity prevention

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a major concern for public health. There are multiple factors (e.g., genetic, social, and environmental) that contribute to unhealthy weight gain. Drawing from findings on "obesogenic environments" and core principles of preventive strategies to reduce health inequalities, this paper gives an overview of recent childhood prevention programs that target aspects of the physical environment ("environmental changes"). Out of the ten reviews we screened (including more than 300 studies), we identified very few that addressed aspects of the environment. We focus here on 14 programs that follow different approaches to environmental changes (e.g., access to/quality of playgrounds, changes in school cafeterias). Altering the environment offers opportunities for healthier behaviors and seems to be an effective strategy to prevent childhood obesity. However, the evaluation of those (mostly) multidimensional interventions does not allow drawing firm conclusions about the single effect of environmental changes. We conclude that obesity prevention programs should combine person-based and environmental approaches.

Childhood obesity at the crossroads

“…In this issue of our journal we have compiled comprehensive data on several aspects of childhood obesity to highlight the importance of obesity research for society, individuals at risk and the affected patients (2,4,5,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). It is clear that we have to strengthen our efforts in respect to investigate prevention and interventions that will work both on an individual and a societal level.…”

“…This is a major concern, considering the well-described association of overweight and obesity with long-term health problems, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. In the majority of individuals, weight gain is the result of exposure to an 'obesogenic' environment, superimposed on a background of genetic susceptibility brought about through evolutionary adaptation (2).…”

“…According to the thrifty gene hypothesis, evolutionary selection pressure has selected genes which allow individuals to survive periods of food deprivation. Within our modern obesogenic environment, however, these same genetic susceptibility traits now appear to be detrimental by promoting obesity and its associated metabolic diseases (2).…”

Status report - Geographic retail food environment measures for use in public health

“…10,11 Thus, a promising approach to improving population-level dietary patterns and associated health outcomes is to intervene in the environments in which food purchasing and consumption decisions are made. [12][13][14][15][16] Food environment researchers acknowledge the complex psychosocial and environmental factors influencing dietary habits, and have investigated various aspects of the food environment in relation to food purchasing and consumption behaviours, and related health outcomes. [17][18][19][20][21] In Glanz and colleagues' foundational paper on healthy nutrition environments, 19 the food environment is conceptualized to consist of multiple dimensions, including the media environment, organizational environments (e.g.…”

Pediatric endocrinology is pediatrics is public health

“…Not only does pediatric endocrinology play an important role in the day-to-day clinical care for neonates, infants, children and adolescents worldwide and hence is an important topic for training physicians and pediatricians in particular, but it also contributes to scientific knowledge in medicine and pediatrics enormously: it is pediatric endocrinologists who are involved in unraveling cell signaling mechanisms in biology and medicine, conducting clinical trials to improve medical treatments and start prevention trials to prevent civilization diseases such as obesity even on a large scale [13].…”