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Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions

As a public health problem, childhood obesity operates at multiple levels, ranging from individual health behaviors to school and community characteristics to public policies. Examining obesity, particularly childhood obesity, from any single perspective is likely to fail, and systems science method...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Skinner, Asheley Cockrell, Foster, E. Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3655564/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23710344
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/129193
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author Skinner, Asheley Cockrell
Foster, E. Michael
author_facet Skinner, Asheley Cockrell
Foster, E. Michael
author_sort Skinner, Asheley Cockrell
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description As a public health problem, childhood obesity operates at multiple levels, ranging from individual health behaviors to school and community characteristics to public policies. Examining obesity, particularly childhood obesity, from any single perspective is likely to fail, and systems science methods offer a possible solution. We systematically reviewed studies that examined the causes and/or consequences of obesity from a systems science perspective. The 21 included studies addressed four general areas of systems science in obesity: (1) translating interventions to a large scale, (2) the effect of obesity on other health or economic outcomes, (3) the effect of geography on obesity, and (4) the effect of social networks on obesity. In general, little research addresses obesity from a true, integrated systems science perspective, and the available research infrequently focuses on children. This shortcoming limits the ability of that research to inform public policy. However, we believe that the largely incremental approaches used in current systems science lay a foundation for future work and present a model demonstrating the system of childhood obesity. Systems science perspective and related methods are particularly promising in understanding the link between childhood obesity and adult outcomes. Systems models emphasize the evolution of agents and their interactions; such evolution is particularly salient in the context of a developing child.
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spelling pubmed-36555642013-05-24 Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions Skinner, Asheley Cockrell Foster, E. Michael J Obes Review Article As a public health problem, childhood obesity operates at multiple levels, ranging from individual health behaviors to school and community characteristics to public policies. Examining obesity, particularly childhood obesity, from any single perspective is likely to fail, and systems science methods offer a possible solution. We systematically reviewed studies that examined the causes and/or consequences of obesity from a systems science perspective. The 21 included studies addressed four general areas of systems science in obesity: (1) translating interventions to a large scale, (2) the effect of obesity on other health or economic outcomes, (3) the effect of geography on obesity, and (4) the effect of social networks on obesity. In general, little research addresses obesity from a true, integrated systems science perspective, and the available research infrequently focuses on children. This shortcoming limits the ability of that research to inform public policy. However, we believe that the largely incremental approaches used in current systems science lay a foundation for future work and present a model demonstrating the system of childhood obesity. Systems science perspective and related methods are particularly promising in understanding the link between childhood obesity and adult outcomes. Systems models emphasize the evolution of agents and their interactions; such evolution is particularly salient in the context of a developing child. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013 2013-04-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3655564/ /pubmed/23710344 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/129193 Text en Copyright © 2013 A. C. Skinner and E. M. Foster. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Skinner, Asheley Cockrell
Foster, E. Michael
Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions
title Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions
title_full Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions
title_fullStr Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions
title_full_unstemmed Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions
title_short Systems Science and Childhood Obesity: A Systematic Review and New Directions
title_sort systems science and childhood obesity: a systematic review and new directions
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3655564/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23710344
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/129193
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