Study Recommends Environmental Changes in Combating the Global Obesity Epidemic

It is a truism that obesity is global health crisis. But how can we separate myth from fact and determine which types of health policy are truly effective in fighting global obesity? A new study titled "Stemming the global obesity epidemic: What can we learn from data about social and economic trends?" addresses this very question. The study, headed by Roland Sturm, a senior economist at RAND, applies economic models to the obesity problem, ultimately recommending that governments look at making environmental changes to encourage citizens to increase physical activity in their daily lives.

According to the Strum, much of recent research has focused on isolating particular causes of the obesity epidemic. Cars, computers, television, fast food, suburbs, portion sizes, women in the workplace, and many other factors have all be suggested as causes for obesity. Conventional wisdom tends to attribute obesity to individual psychological and social factors. For instance, an overweight individual may see him or herself as simply weak-willed less able to resist the allure of fatty or sugary snacks. Much of the advice given out by government organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute operate from the assumption that the causes and solution for obesity are simple, straightforward, and easily understood: eat less, move more, and watch the scale. However, if the cause of obesity was really this simple, why are so few of us able to lose weight, and why do so many who do lose weight repeatedly regain it?

Strum suggests that we need to look beyond individual decisions and simple causal factors to get to the root of the problem. Instead, Strum applies economic models to look at the trade-offs people are making in relation to money, time, and health.

According to Strum, there are several important questions to ask:

What are people doing with their time and money?

How have economic incentives lead people to make choices that lead to weight gain?

How can governments change these incentives in order to lead people to make alternate choices which lead to better health and less obesity?

By taking economic factors into account, researches can look at factors such as the cost of fruits and vegetables compared to the cost of high fat, high sugar foods, the availability of free community resources that promote physical fitness, such as bike trails or walking paths, and the benefits of multifaceted interventions.