Overweight : Opportunities for Interventions

Intervention strategies often targeted at childhood obesity

There are several authoritative bodies that have published a range of opportunities for intervention. Some of them are very general and some are more specific. Often, intervention strategies are directed towards children. Lifestyle factors, including diet, eating habits, levels of physical activity as well as inactivity, are often adopted during the early years of life they argue, so prevention should take place in this age group.

The British Medical Association published a report on childhood obesity that addresses various ways to tackle the problem of childhood obesity (BMA, 2005). The report concludes: "The BMA agrees with the International Obesity TaskForce that in order to halt the obesity epidemic,

"...interventions at the family or school level will need to be matched by changes in the social and cultural context so that the benefits can be sustained and enhanced. Such prevention strategies will require a coordinated effort between the medical community, health administrators, teachers, parents, food producers and processors, retailers and caterers, advertisers and the media, recreation and sport planners, urban architects, city planners, politicians and legislators."

"Environments that encourage healthy eating and active living are vitally important. The focus of such strategies should be to make it easier for the public to make healthy choices. Such strategies require funding for implementation, but should ultimately lead to a reduction in the costs to the NHS from obesity related ill health."

EU Platform for Action on Diet and Physical Activity

In March 2005, the European Commission launched the EU Platform for Action on Diet and Physical Activity. The platform commits all its stakeholders to fight obesity in the EU. The Commission is also exploring the scope for an EU wide code of conduct to rein back the marketing of unhealthy food to children by European advertisers. It stresses that the fight against obesity needs to be considered in the range of EU policies, such as agriculture, education and transport, that can have an impact on the epidemic. These actions will form the basis of an overall EU strategy on diet and physical activity to be published later this year.

WHO Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health

The WHO Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health provides Member States with a variety of global policy options to address the problem of unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. It states that effective weight management for individuals and groups at risk of developing obesity involves a range of long-term strategies. These include prevention, weight maintenance, management of co-morbidities and weight loss. They should be part of an integrated, multi-sectoral, population-based approach, which includes environmental support for healthy diets and regular physical activity.

Key elements include:

Creating supportive population-based environments through public policies that

promote the availability and accessibility of healthy food and
provide opportunities for physical activity.

Promoting healthy behaviour to encourage and enable individuals to lose weight by

moving from saturated animal-based fats to unsaturated vegetable-oil based fats,
eating more fruit and vegetables, as well as nuts and whole grains,
engaging in daily moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes.

Cutting the amount of fatty, sugary foods in the diet,
Develop a clinical response to the existing burden of obesity and associated conditions through

clinical programmes and
staff training to ensure effective support for those affected to lose weight or avoid further weight gain.