Cargando…
Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity
A dramatic increase in childhood overweight/obesity has been recognized globally over the past 50 years. This observed increase may reflect genetic, as well as psychological, environmental, and socio-cultural influences. In the first part of this review, we present an updated summary of the psychoso...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4116804/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25133140 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00104 |
_version_ | 1782328630631727104 |
---|---|
author | Stein, Daniel Weinberger-Litman, Sarah L. Latzer, Yael |
author_facet | Stein, Daniel Weinberger-Litman, Sarah L. Latzer, Yael |
author_sort | Stein, Daniel |
collection | PubMed |
description | A dramatic increase in childhood overweight/obesity has been recognized globally over the past 50 years. This observed increase may reflect genetic, as well as psychological, environmental, and socio-cultural influences. In the first part of this review, we present an updated summary of the psychosocial factors associated with this change and discuss possible ways in which they operate. Among these factors, lower socio economic status (in both industrialized and non-industrialized countries), being female, belonging to a minority group, and being exposed to adverse life events may all be associated with a greater risk of childhood overweight/obesity. These influences may be mediated via a variety of mechanisms, in particular above-average food intake of low nutritional quality and reduction in physical activity. Other important psychosocial mediators include the influence of the family and peer environment, and exposure to the media. In the second part of the review, we discuss the potential of psychosocial prevention programs to intervene in the processes involved in the rise of childhood overweight/obesity. Two points are emphasized. First, prevention programs should be multidisciplinary, combining the knowledge of experts from different professions, and taking into consideration the important role of the family environment and relevant influential social organizations, particularly school. Second, effective change is unlikely to occur without large-scale programs carried out on a public policy level. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4116804 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41168042014-08-15 Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity Stein, Daniel Weinberger-Litman, Sarah L. Latzer, Yael Front Public Health Public Health A dramatic increase in childhood overweight/obesity has been recognized globally over the past 50 years. This observed increase may reflect genetic, as well as psychological, environmental, and socio-cultural influences. In the first part of this review, we present an updated summary of the psychosocial factors associated with this change and discuss possible ways in which they operate. Among these factors, lower socio economic status (in both industrialized and non-industrialized countries), being female, belonging to a minority group, and being exposed to adverse life events may all be associated with a greater risk of childhood overweight/obesity. These influences may be mediated via a variety of mechanisms, in particular above-average food intake of low nutritional quality and reduction in physical activity. Other important psychosocial mediators include the influence of the family and peer environment, and exposure to the media. In the second part of the review, we discuss the potential of psychosocial prevention programs to intervene in the processes involved in the rise of childhood overweight/obesity. Two points are emphasized. First, prevention programs should be multidisciplinary, combining the knowledge of experts from different professions, and taking into consideration the important role of the family environment and relevant influential social organizations, particularly school. Second, effective change is unlikely to occur without large-scale programs carried out on a public policy level. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4116804/ /pubmed/25133140 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00104 Text en Copyright © 2014 Stein, Weinberger-Litman and Latzer. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Stein, Daniel Weinberger-Litman, Sarah L. Latzer, Yael Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity |
title | Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity |
title_full | Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity |
title_fullStr | Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity |
title_full_unstemmed | Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity |
title_short | Psychosocial Perspectives and the Issue of Prevention in Childhood Obesity |
title_sort | psychosocial perspectives and the issue of prevention in childhood obesity |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4116804/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25133140 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00104 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT steindaniel psychosocialperspectivesandtheissueofpreventioninchildhoodobesity AT weinbergerlitmansarahl psychosocialperspectivesandtheissueofpreventioninchildhoodobesity AT latzeryael psychosocialperspectivesandtheissueofpreventioninchildhoodobesity |