9. Build the evidence base, monitor and evaluate effectiveness of actions

Table of contents

3 - Obesity prevention

4 - Potential initiatives

In 2007, the US National Cancer Institute convened a meeting to discuss priorities for a research agenda to inform obesity policy, based on the serious implications for public health and the economy associated with the dramatic rise in obesity levels in the United States over the past several decades.[141] The power of public policy as a tool to effect structural change modifying population-level behaviour has been demonstrated through experiences in other public health initiatives such as tobacco control. Issues considered were how to define obesity policy research, key challenges and key partners in formulating and implementing an obesity policy research agenda, criteria by which to set research priorities, and specific research needs and questions. Five key themes that emerged were:

The embryonic nature of obesity policy research
The need to conduct ‘natural experiments’ resulting from policy-based efforts to address the obesity epidemic
The importance of research focused beyond individual-level behaviour change
The need for economic research across several relevant policy areas
The overall urgency of taking action in the policy arena

The meeting concluded that timely evaluation of natural experiments is of especially high priority for future work. The variety of policies intended to promote healthy weight in children and adults being implemented in communities and at the state and national levels were explored. While some of these policies were supported by the findings of intervention research, the need for additional research to evaluate the implementation and to quantify the impact of new policies designed to address obesity was also highlighted.[141]

|TOC|next page