scholarly journals Developing the logic framework underpinning a whole‐systems approach to childhood overweight and obesity prevention: Amsterdam Healthy Weight Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexia Sawyer ◽  
Karen den Hertog ◽  
Arnoud P Verhoeff ◽  
Vincent Busch ◽  
Karien Stronks
Keyword(s):  
Obesity Prevention ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Childhood Overweight ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Healthy Weight ◽  
Childhood Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Whole Systems

An urban, community-based whole of systems approach to address childhood overweight and obesity

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
K Wardle ◽  
N Maitland ◽  
S Allender ◽  
B Jalaludin ◽  
F Haigh
Keyword(s):  
System Approach ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Urban Community ◽  
Childhood Overweight ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Group Model ◽  
Healthy Weight ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Childhood Overweight And Obesity

Abstract Background In 2015 two billion people were estimated to be above a healthy weight globally, contributing to a rapid increase of non-communicable diseases. Evidence indicates multi-faceted and community-led interventions are most effective in addressing the complexity of childhood overweight and obesity. Campbelltown - Changing our Future is a practical example of an urban, community-based whole of system approach to identify, develop and implement community-led interventions to address this issue. Methods Key community stakeholders and leaders, who had power to change environments and norms, were engaged in a series of three workshops to develop a systems map. A Group Model Building (GMB) framework was used across the workshops to facilitate community perception of the key factors that compose the system that influences childhood overweight and obesity within an urban community. Community members were asked to identify and commit to community-led actions to effect change on various elements of the system. Results Over 200 community members were engaged in the GMB process, establishing the following systems map themes: physical activity and sedentary behaviour, healthy eating, knowledge and education and social factors. A further 200 community members are contributing to 90 ongoing community-led comprehensive interventions to address childhood overweight and obesity. Conclusions Over 90 actions are active within the community, ranging from high profile athletes’ role modelling reading to children through to a Council healthy food and drink policy. These actions contribute to creating change across multiple levels of the system, an effective, sustainable solution to addressing childhood overweight and obesity. Key messages Practical implementation of a whole of system approach in an urban community produces community-led action. A whole of systems approach facilitates community engagement to address complex issues.

scholarly journals Developing a whole systems obesity classification for the UK Biobank Cohort

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Clark ◽  
Mark Birkin ◽  
Nik Lomax ◽  
Michelle Morris
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Healthy Weight ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Whole Systems

The number of people who are obese and overweight presents a global challenge, and the development of effective interventions is hampered by a lack of research which takes in to account a joined up, whole systems approach to understanding the drivers of the phenomena. We need to better understand the collective characteristics and behaviours of the overweight and obese population and how these differ from those who maintain a healthy weight. Using the UK Biobank cohort of 500 000 adults, we develop an obesity classification system using k-means clustering. Variable selection from UK Biobank is informed by the Foresight whole system obesity map across key domains (Societal Influences, Individual Psychology, Individual Physiology, Individual Physical Activity, Physical Activity Environment). This paper presents the first study of UK Biobank participants to adopt this whole systems approach. Our classification identifies six groups of people, similar in respect to their exposure to known drivers of obesity: ‘Younger, active and working hard’, ‘Retirees with good lifestyle’ , ‘Stressed, sedentary and struggling’, Older with poor lifestyle’, ‘Younger, busy professionals’ and ‘Younger, fitter families’. Pen portraits are developed to describe the characteristics of these different groups. Multinomial logistic regression is used to demonstrate that the classification can effectively detect groups of individuals more likely to be overweight or obese. The group identified as ‘Younger, fitter families’ are observed to have a higher proportion of healthy weight, while three groups have increased relative risk of being overweight or obese: ‘Younger, active and working hard’, ‘Stressed, sedentary and struggling’ and ‘Older with poor lifestyles’. This work presents an innovative new approach to better understand the whole systems drivers of obesity which has the potential to produce meaningful tools for policy makers to better target interventions across the whole system to reduce overweight and obesity.

The Amsterdam Healthy Weight Approach: A whole systems approach for tackling child obesity in cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
K den Hertog ◽  
V Busch
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Child Obesity ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Healthy Weight ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Whole Systems

Abstract In search for successful overweight and obesity prevention, extensive research has shown that programs focused on individual behavior change are not effective enough. Many of the underlying determinants of overweight and obesity have social, environmental and economic origins, and extend even beyond the influence of the health sector and public health. This calls for a whole systems approach that covers a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder collaboration, where communities, professionals, government and industry are involved and are all part of the solution. The Amsterdam Healthy Weight Approach (AHWA), initiated in 2012, is a local government led approach that has the objective to encourage healthy weight for children in a healthy environment. With a long-term vision, aimed at lasting change, the AHWA aims at developing interventions, changing policies and educating and informing both professionals and target groups within the communities that are most heavily burdened with the issue of child obesity (and related complex health/wellbeing issues). The strength of the AHWA lies in adopting a whole systems approach (WSA), in which the key is, to collaborate in an integrated, multi-level, multi sectoral way, with a variety of stakeholders from within and outside the field of public health. The aim of the presentation is to inform participants from cities around the globe about the success factors, lessons learned and valuable elements of implementing the AHWA, and to provide tools which they can use in discussing their own approaches and bring these to a higher level of effectiveness

scholarly journals Tracking implementation within a community-led whole of system approach to address childhood overweight and obesity in south west Sydney, Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Maitland ◽  
Karen Wardle ◽  
Jill Whelan ◽  
Bin Jalaludin ◽  
Doug Creighton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
System Approach ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Complex Interventions ◽  
Childhood Overweight ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Childhood Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Working Groups ◽  
Implementation Data

Abstract Background Obesity is a chronic disease that contributes to additional comorbidities including diabetes, kidney disease and several cancers. Change4Campbelltown implemented a ‘whole of system’ approach to address childhood overweight and obesity. We present methods to track implementation and stakeholder engagement in Change4Campbelltown. Methods Change4Campbelltown aimed to build capacity among key leaders and the broader community to apply techniques from systems thinking to develop community-led actions that address childhood obesity. Change4Campbelltown comprised development of a stakeholder-informed Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) and locally-tailored action plan, formation of key stakeholder and community working groups to prioritise and implement actions, and continuous monitoring of intervention actions. Implementation data included an action register, stakeholder engagement database and key engagement activities and were collected quarterly by the project management team over 2 years of reporting. Results Engagement activities increased level of community engagement amongst key leaders, the school-sector and community members. Community-led action increased as engagement increased and this action is mapped directly to the primary point of influence on the CLD. As action spread diversified across the CLD, the geographical spread of action within the community increased. Conclusions This paper provides a pragmatic example of the methods used to track implementation of complex interventions that are addressing childhood overweight and obesity.

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