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Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials

BACKGROUND: The international increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity has hastened in recent decades. This rise has coincided with the emergence of comorbidities in childhood—such as type II diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnoea and hypertension—former...

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Autores principales: Esdaile, Emma K., Gillespie, James, Baur, Louise A., Wen, Li Ming, Rissel, Chris
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9204007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35719604
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.781801
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author Esdaile, Emma K.
Gillespie, James
Baur, Louise A.
Wen, Li Ming
Rissel, Chris
author_facet Esdaile, Emma K.
Gillespie, James
Baur, Louise A.
Wen, Li Ming
Rissel, Chris
author_sort Esdaile, Emma K.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The international increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity has hastened in recent decades. This rise has coincided with the emergence of comorbidities in childhood—such as type II diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnoea and hypertension—formerly only described in adulthood. This phenomenon suggests global social and economic trends are impacting on health supportive environments. Obesity prevention is complex and necessitates both long-term and systems approaches. Such an approach considers the determinants of health and how they interrelate to one another. Investment in the early years (from conception to about 5 years of age) is a key life stage to prevent obesity and establish lifelong healthy habits relating to nutrition, physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep. In Australia, obesity prevention efforts are spread across national and state/territory health departments. It is not known from the literature how, with limited national oversight, state and territory health departments approach obesity prevention in the early years. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study including policy mapping and interviews with senior officials from each Australian state/territory health department. A series of questions were developed from the literature to guide the policy mapping, drawing on the World Health Organisation Ending Childhood Obesity Report, and adapted to the state/territory context. The policy mapping was iterative. Prior to the interviews initial policy mapping was undertaken. During the interviews, these policies were discussed, and participants were asked to supply any additional policies of relevance to obesity prevention. The semi-structured interviews explored the approaches to obesity prevention taken in each jurisdiction and the barriers and enablers faced for policy implementation. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, using NVivo software. RESULTS: State and territory approaches to obesity prevention are eclectic and while there are numerous similarities between jurisdictions, no two states are the same. The diversity of approaches between jurisdictions is influenced by the policy culture and unique social, geographic, and funding contexts in each jurisdiction. No Australian state/territory had policies against all the guiding questions. However, there are opportunities for sharing and collaborating within and between Australian jurisdictions to establish what works, where, and for whom, across Australia's complex policy landscape. CONCLUSIONS: Even within a single country, obesity prevention policy needs to be adaptable to local contexts. Opportunities for jurisdictions within and between countries to share, learn, and adapt their experiences should be supported and sustained funding provided.
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spelling pubmed-92040072022-06-18 Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials Esdaile, Emma K. Gillespie, James Baur, Louise A. Wen, Li Ming Rissel, Chris Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: The international increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity has hastened in recent decades. This rise has coincided with the emergence of comorbidities in childhood—such as type II diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnoea and hypertension—formerly only described in adulthood. This phenomenon suggests global social and economic trends are impacting on health supportive environments. Obesity prevention is complex and necessitates both long-term and systems approaches. Such an approach considers the determinants of health and how they interrelate to one another. Investment in the early years (from conception to about 5 years of age) is a key life stage to prevent obesity and establish lifelong healthy habits relating to nutrition, physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep. In Australia, obesity prevention efforts are spread across national and state/territory health departments. It is not known from the literature how, with limited national oversight, state and territory health departments approach obesity prevention in the early years. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study including policy mapping and interviews with senior officials from each Australian state/territory health department. A series of questions were developed from the literature to guide the policy mapping, drawing on the World Health Organisation Ending Childhood Obesity Report, and adapted to the state/territory context. The policy mapping was iterative. Prior to the interviews initial policy mapping was undertaken. During the interviews, these policies were discussed, and participants were asked to supply any additional policies of relevance to obesity prevention. The semi-structured interviews explored the approaches to obesity prevention taken in each jurisdiction and the barriers and enablers faced for policy implementation. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, using NVivo software. RESULTS: State and territory approaches to obesity prevention are eclectic and while there are numerous similarities between jurisdictions, no two states are the same. The diversity of approaches between jurisdictions is influenced by the policy culture and unique social, geographic, and funding contexts in each jurisdiction. No Australian state/territory had policies against all the guiding questions. However, there are opportunities for sharing and collaborating within and between Australian jurisdictions to establish what works, where, and for whom, across Australia's complex policy landscape. CONCLUSIONS: Even within a single country, obesity prevention policy needs to be adaptable to local contexts. Opportunities for jurisdictions within and between countries to share, learn, and adapt their experiences should be supported and sustained funding provided. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9204007/ /pubmed/35719604 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.781801 Text en Copyright © 2022 Esdaile, Gillespie, Baur, Wen and Rissel. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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) and the copyright owner(s) 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
Esdaile, Emma K.
Gillespie, James
Baur, Louise A.
Wen, Li Ming
Rissel, Chris
Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials
title Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials
title_full Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials
title_fullStr Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials
title_full_unstemmed Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials
title_short Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials
title_sort australian state and territory eclectic approaches to obesity prevention in the early years: policy mapping and perspectives of senior health officials
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9204007/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35719604
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.781801
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