Cargando…

A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland

BACKGROUND: Multisector activities are needed to prevent childhood obesity due to its multifactorial background. The first aim was to identify the activities that had been undertaken for obesity prevention and deduce their main targets. Second, we analyzed the public health policy approaches (upstre...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Koivusilta, Leena, Alanne, Soili, Kamila, Marjo, Ståhl, Timo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9258052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35794541
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13658-z
_version_ 1784741454227177472
author Koivusilta, Leena
Alanne, Soili
Kamila, Marjo
Ståhl, Timo
author_facet Koivusilta, Leena
Alanne, Soili
Kamila, Marjo
Ståhl, Timo
author_sort Koivusilta, Leena
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Multisector activities are needed to prevent childhood obesity due to its multifactorial background. The first aim was to identify the activities that had been undertaken for obesity prevention and deduce their main targets. Second, we analyzed the public health policy approaches (upstream, midstream, and downstream) which were followed. Finally, we studied the perception of interviewees regarding their sectors’ roles in implementing the local obesity program. METHODS: Deductive content analysis was used to analyze semi-structured interviews with 34 key professionals (from seven administrative sectors) who had participated in multisector health promotion during 2009–2016 and five representatives of other core parties. RESULTS: Several midstream and upstream activities were targeted at making physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) integral parts of children’s lifestyle. One long-term strategy was to create environments for PA accessible to every inhabitant and build and renovate the interiors and yards of schools and day-care centers. The healthiness of meals was increased progressively. In addition to midstream and upstream activities, as a downstream activity, an intervention targeting children at risk of obesity was implemented. The impact of management on the activities was considerable; childhood obesity prevention was included in the city strategy and systematically coordinated at the highest managerial level. Altogether, various sectors operated efficiently to promote obesity-preventing lifestyles; however, not all (important) sectors recognized their role in the multisector process. CONCLUSION: Most of the activities to guide children towards obesity-preventing lifestyles were either at the midstream or upstream level. Among the latter, considerable work is aimed at creating opportunities to practice PA and making it a natural part of the daily life. The aim of familiarizing children with lifestyles that include PA and HE was shared across sectors, including sectors that had not yet acknowledged their role in obesity prevention. Strong support from city management and systematic coordination of the activity are important factors that contribute to the engagement of several administrative sectors in working towards a shared aim, such as the prevention of childhood obesity.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9258052
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-92580522022-07-07 A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland Koivusilta, Leena Alanne, Soili Kamila, Marjo Ståhl, Timo BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Multisector activities are needed to prevent childhood obesity due to its multifactorial background. The first aim was to identify the activities that had been undertaken for obesity prevention and deduce their main targets. Second, we analyzed the public health policy approaches (upstream, midstream, and downstream) which were followed. Finally, we studied the perception of interviewees regarding their sectors’ roles in implementing the local obesity program. METHODS: Deductive content analysis was used to analyze semi-structured interviews with 34 key professionals (from seven administrative sectors) who had participated in multisector health promotion during 2009–2016 and five representatives of other core parties. RESULTS: Several midstream and upstream activities were targeted at making physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) integral parts of children’s lifestyle. One long-term strategy was to create environments for PA accessible to every inhabitant and build and renovate the interiors and yards of schools and day-care centers. The healthiness of meals was increased progressively. In addition to midstream and upstream activities, as a downstream activity, an intervention targeting children at risk of obesity was implemented. The impact of management on the activities was considerable; childhood obesity prevention was included in the city strategy and systematically coordinated at the highest managerial level. Altogether, various sectors operated efficiently to promote obesity-preventing lifestyles; however, not all (important) sectors recognized their role in the multisector process. CONCLUSION: Most of the activities to guide children towards obesity-preventing lifestyles were either at the midstream or upstream level. Among the latter, considerable work is aimed at creating opportunities to practice PA and making it a natural part of the daily life. The aim of familiarizing children with lifestyles that include PA and HE was shared across sectors, including sectors that had not yet acknowledged their role in obesity prevention. Strong support from city management and systematic coordination of the activity are important factors that contribute to the engagement of several administrative sectors in working towards a shared aim, such as the prevention of childhood obesity. BioMed Central 2022-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9258052/ /pubmed/35794541 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13658-z Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Koivusilta, Leena
Alanne, Soili
Kamila, Marjo
Ståhl, Timo
A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland
title A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland
title_full A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland
title_fullStr A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland
title_full_unstemmed A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland
title_short A qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of Seinäjoki, Finland
title_sort qualitative study on multisector activities to prevent childhood obesity in the municipality of seinäjoki, finland
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9258052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35794541
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13658-z
work_keys_str_mv AT koivusiltaleena aqualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland
AT alannesoili aqualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland
AT kamilamarjo aqualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland
AT stahltimo aqualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland
AT koivusiltaleena qualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland
AT alannesoili qualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland
AT kamilamarjo qualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland
AT stahltimo qualitativestudyonmultisectoractivitiestopreventchildhoodobesityinthemunicipalityofseinajokifinland