Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 104, Issue 10, Pages E43-E50Publisher
AMER PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOC INC
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302066
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council [120100418]
- Australian National Preventive Health Agency [188PEE2011]
- Victorian Government
- National Heart Foundation of Australia [PH 12M 6824]
- National Health and Medical Research Council [1045456, 1042442]
- Australian National Health and Medical Research Council [1003710]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We developed a theoretical framework to organize obesity prevention interventions by their likely impact on the socioeconomic gradient of weight. The degree to which an intervention involves individual agency versus structural change influences socioeconomic inequalities in weight. Agentic interventions, such as standalone social marketing, increase socioeconomic inequalities. Structural interventions, such as food procurement policies and restrictions on unhealthy foods in schools, show equal or greater benefit for lower socioeconomic groups. Many obesity prevention interventions belong to the agento-structural types of interventions, and account for the environment in which health behaviors occur, but they require a level of individual agency for behavioral change, including workplace design to encourage exercise and fiscal regulation of unhealthy foods or beverages. Obesity prevention interventions differ in their effectiveness across socioeconomic groups. Limiting further increases in socioeconomic inequalities in obesity requires implementation of structural interventions. Further empirical evaluation, especially of agento-structural type interventions, remains crucial.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available