scholarly journals Canadian Senate Report on Obesity: Focusing on Individual Behaviours versus Social Determinants of Health May Promote Weight Stigma

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela S. Alberga ◽  
Lindsay McLaren ◽  
Shelly Russell-Mayhew ◽  
Kristin M. von Ranson

Very little attention has been given to unintended consequences of government reporting on obesity. This paper argues that the 2016 Senate report, “Obesity in Canada: A Whole-Of-Society Approach,” exemplifies the systemic public health issue of weight stigma. The purpose of this viewpoint is to critique the approach taken in the Report, by illustrating that it (1) takes a weight-centric approach to health, (2) does not acknowledge important limitations of the definition and measurement of obesity, (3) reifies obesity as a categorical phenomenon that must be prevented, and (4) uses aggressive framing and disrespectful terminology. The Report perpetuates a focus on the individual, thereby failing to recognize the role that governments can play in reducing weight stigma and addressing social determinants of health. If steps are taken to avoid propagating weight stigma, future reports could more constructively address health promotion, equity, and social determinants of health in their policies.

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 624-633
Author(s):  
Cheryl Holzmeyer

SummaryWhile academic open access, open data and open science initiatives have proliferated in recent years, facilitating new research resources for health promotion, open initiatives are not one-size-fits-all. Health research particularly illustrates how open initiatives may serve various interests and ends. Open initiatives not only foster new pathways of research access; they also discipline research in new ways, especially when associated with new regimes of research use and peer review, while participating in innovation ecosystems that often perpetuate existing systemic biases toward commercial biomedicine. Currently, many open initiatives are more oriented toward biomedical research paradigms than paradigms associated with public health promotion, such as social determinants of health research. Moreover, open initiatives too often dovetail with, rather than challenge, neoliberal policy paradigms. Such initiatives are unlikely to transform existing health research landscapes and redress health inequities. In this context, attunement to social determinants of health research and community-based local knowledge is vital to orient open initiatives toward public health promotion and health equity. Such an approach calls for discourses, norms and innovation ecosystems that contest neoliberal policy frameworks and foster upstream interventions to promote health, beyond biomedical paradigms. This analysis highlights challenges and possibilities for leveraging open initiatives on behalf of a wider range of health research stakeholders, while emphasizing public health promotion, health equity and social justice as benchmarks of transformation.


2022 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julianne Holt-Lunstad

There is growing interest in and renewed support for prioritizing social factors in public health both in the USA and globally. While there are multiple widely recognized social determinants of health, indicators of social connectedness (e.g., social capital, social support, social isolation, loneliness) are often noticeably absent from the discourse. This article provides an organizing framework for conceptualizing social connection and summarizes the cumulative evidence supporting its relevance for health, including epidemiological associations, pathways, and biological mechanisms. This evidence points to several implications for prioritizing social connection within solutions across sectors, where public health work, initiatives, and research play a key role in addressing gaps. Therefore, this review proposes a systemic framework for cross-sector action to identify missed opportunities and guide future investigation, intervention, practice, and policy on promoting social connection and health for all. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S van den Broucke ◽  
C Aluttis ◽  
K Michelsen ◽  
H Brand ◽  
C Chiotan ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahid Ansari ◽  
Norman J. Carson ◽  
Michael J. Ackland ◽  
Loretta Vaughan ◽  
Adrian Serraglio

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kehe Zhang ◽  
Belinda Reininger ◽  
Miryoung Lee ◽  
Qian Xiao ◽  
Cici Bauer

Background: Diabetes is a major health burden in Mexican American populations, especially among those in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in the border region of Texas. Understanding the roles that social determinants of health (SDOH) play in diabetes management programs, both at the individual and community level, may inform future intervention strategies.Methods: This study performed a secondary data analysis on 1,568 individuals who participated in Salud y Vida (SyV), a local diabetes and chronic disease management program, between October 2013 and September 2018 recruited from a local clinic. The primary outcome was the reduction of hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) at the last follow-up visit compared to the baseline. In addition to age, gender, insurance status, education level and marital status, we also investigated 15 community (census tract) SDOH using the American Community Survey. Because of the high correlation in the community SDOH, we developed the community-level indices representing different domains. Using Bayesian multilevel spatial models that account for the geographic dependency, we were able to simultaneously investigate the individual- and community-level SDOH that may impact HbA1C reduction.Results: After accounting for the diabetes self-management education classes taken by the participants and their length of stay in the program, we found that older age at baseline, being married (compared to being widowed or divorced) and English speaking (compared to Spanish) were significantly associated with greater HbA1C reduction. Moreover, we found that the community level SDOH were also highly associated with HbA1C reduction. With every percentile rank decrease in the socioeconomic advantage index, we estimated an additional 0.018% reduction in HbA1C [95% CI (−0.028, −0.007)]. Besides the socioeconomic advantage index, urban core opportunity and immigrant's cohesion and accessibility indices were also statistically associated with HbA1C reduction.Conclusion: To our knowledge, our study is the first to utilize Bayesian multilevel spatial models and simultaneously investigate both individual- and community-level SDOH in the context of diabetes management. Our findings suggest that community SDOH play an important role in diabetes control and management, and the need to consider community and neighborhood context in future interventions programs to maximize their overall effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Bo Burström

This commentary refers to the article by Fisher et al on lessons from Australian primary healthcare (PHC), which highlights the role of PHC to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and promote health equity. This commentary discusses important elements and features when aiming for health equity, including going beyond the healthcare system and focusing on the social determinants of health in public health policies, in PHC and in the healthcare system as a whole, to reduce NCDs. A wider biopsychosocial view on health is needed, recognizing the importance of social determinants of health, and inequalities in health. Public funding and universal access to care are important prerequisites, but regulation is needed to ensure equitable access in practice. An example of a PHC reform in Sweden indicates that introducing market solutions in a publicly funded PHC system may not benefit those with greater needs and may reduce the impact of PHC on population health.


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