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Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape

In Fiji and other Pacific Island countries, obesity has rapidly increased in the past decade. Therefore, several obesity prevention policies have been developed. Studies show that their development has been hampered by factors within Fiji's policy landscape such as pressure from industry. Since...

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Autores principales: Hendriks, Anna-Marie, Delai, Mere Y., Thow, Anne-Marie, Gubbels, Jessica S., De Vries, Nanne K., Kremers, Stef P. J., Jansen, Maria W. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4561938/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26380307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/926159
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author Hendriks, Anna-Marie
Delai, Mere Y.
Thow, Anne-Marie
Gubbels, Jessica S.
De Vries, Nanne K.
Kremers, Stef P. J.
Jansen, Maria W. J.
author_facet Hendriks, Anna-Marie
Delai, Mere Y.
Thow, Anne-Marie
Gubbels, Jessica S.
De Vries, Nanne K.
Kremers, Stef P. J.
Jansen, Maria W. J.
author_sort Hendriks, Anna-Marie
collection PubMed
description In Fiji and other Pacific Island countries, obesity has rapidly increased in the past decade. Therefore, several obesity prevention policies have been developed. Studies show that their development has been hampered by factors within Fiji's policy landscape such as pressure from industry. Since policymakers in the Fijian national government are primarily responsible for the development of obesity policies, it is important to understand their perspectives; we therefore interviewed 15 policymakers from nine Fijian ministries. By applying the “attractor landscape” metaphor from dynamic systems theory, we captured perceived barriers and facilitators in the policy landscape. A poor economic situation, low food self-sufficiency, power inequalities, inappropriate framing of obesity, limited policy evidence, and limited resource sharing hamper obesity policy developments in Fiji. Facilitators include policy entrepreneurs and policy brokers who were active when a window of opportunity opened and who strengthened intersectoral collaboration. Fiji's policy landscape can become more conducive to obesity policies if power inequalities are reduced. In Fiji and other Pacific Island countries, this may be achievable through increased food self-sufficiency, strengthened intersectoral collaboration, and the establishment of an explicit functional focal unit within government to monitor and forecast the health impact of policy changes in non-health sectors.
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spelling pubmed-45619382015-09-15 Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape Hendriks, Anna-Marie Delai, Mere Y. Thow, Anne-Marie Gubbels, Jessica S. De Vries, Nanne K. Kremers, Stef P. J. Jansen, Maria W. J. Biomed Res Int Research Article In Fiji and other Pacific Island countries, obesity has rapidly increased in the past decade. Therefore, several obesity prevention policies have been developed. Studies show that their development has been hampered by factors within Fiji's policy landscape such as pressure from industry. Since policymakers in the Fijian national government are primarily responsible for the development of obesity policies, it is important to understand their perspectives; we therefore interviewed 15 policymakers from nine Fijian ministries. By applying the “attractor landscape” metaphor from dynamic systems theory, we captured perceived barriers and facilitators in the policy landscape. A poor economic situation, low food self-sufficiency, power inequalities, inappropriate framing of obesity, limited policy evidence, and limited resource sharing hamper obesity policy developments in Fiji. Facilitators include policy entrepreneurs and policy brokers who were active when a window of opportunity opened and who strengthened intersectoral collaboration. Fiji's policy landscape can become more conducive to obesity policies if power inequalities are reduced. In Fiji and other Pacific Island countries, this may be achievable through increased food self-sufficiency, strengthened intersectoral collaboration, and the establishment of an explicit functional focal unit within government to monitor and forecast the health impact of policy changes in non-health sectors. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015 2015-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4561938/ /pubmed/26380307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/926159 Text en Copyright © 2015 Anna-Marie Hendriks et al. 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 Research Article
Hendriks, Anna-Marie
Delai, Mere Y.
Thow, Anne-Marie
Gubbels, Jessica S.
De Vries, Nanne K.
Kremers, Stef P. J.
Jansen, Maria W. J.
Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape
title Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape
title_full Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape
title_fullStr Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape
title_full_unstemmed Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape
title_short Perspectives of Fijian Policymakers on the Obesity Prevention Policy Landscape
title_sort perspectives of fijian policymakers on the obesity prevention policy landscape
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4561938/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26380307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/926159
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