New Report: Interventions Related to Obesity: Evidence Review

Posted by on October 28, 2005

[posted from Community Based Participatory Research listserv]

Interventions Related to Obesity – A State of the Evidence Review
Carmen R. Connolly
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, 2005
Available online as PDF file [28p.] at: http://healthpromotion.hsf.ca/

“….In this paper, the evidence on interventions related to obesity was grouped into three categories:

* Interventions that have been proven to be effective

* Interventions that have some evidence of promise, but require more research to address evidence gaps

* Interventions that have been proven not to be effective

“….A review of the state of evidence of obesity interventions faces similar challenges to reviews of evidence of other public health interventions. This paper presents a summary of the challenges described in a number of comprehensive reviews of evidence of effectiveness of interventions that were carried out in recent years, either from a broad focus on social and behavioral research and health promotion, or from a specific focus on obesity…..”

Listserv subscribers may be especially interested in these last two conclusions in the report:

“The key lesson learned from community health promotion interventions which have been implemented since the 1970s is that the public heath approach to disease prevention should not focus solely on risk behaviour education and behavioural skill development, but should also incorporate environmental and policy measurers, plus an understanding of the barriers preventing behaviour change.”

“Experts recommend that efforts to develop the next generation of preventions interventions must focus on building relationships with communities and develop interventions that derive from the communities assessments of their needs and priorities. Models should be developed that encourage members of the community and researchers to work together to design, train for, and conduct such programs.”