Question

Public Health Issue Chosen: Obesity in the USA (No Copy Paste Please/ 700-800 words)

Q: 1 Explain the roles of stakeholders, both within the health system and in other sectors in addressing this issue.

Q: 2 Drawing on research evidence, explain the obstacles that are preventing the application of systems thinking the approach to this issue.

Q: 3 Based on the literature, offer suggestions (e.g. new governance arrangements) for how systems thinking the approach could be applied to this issue.

Answer 1

Q1.Obesity is a public health problem that has become an epidemic. A substantial literature has emerged to show that overweight and obesity are major causes of co-morbidities. Therefore, a public health approach to developing population-based strategies for the prevention of excess weight gain is of great importance. However, public health intervention programs have had limited success in tackling the rising prevalence of obesity.

A stakeholder is a person or group with interest, involvement or investment in something.

1.International Organizations: Promote health promotion as a key setting for health and encourage and enable developments at the country level through :

• Advocacy

• Research

• Capacity building

• Dissemination of good practice

• Investment in pilot programmes

2.National and local Government e.g. Ministries of Health, Labour and Safety Local and municipal governments:

Ensure that the policy framework in which organizations operate includes health promotion. Create an environment which is proactive in terms of promoting health and well being and in particular create opportunities to participate in health promotion initiatives through national and local health campaigns, accreditation/award schemes and capacity building.

3. NGOs :

Advocacy and developmental. Advocacy in encouraging the acceptance of diet and physical activity as key health goals, which to promote health by other stakeholders. Developmental in establishing and disseminating good practice.

4. Organization and staff:

Become involved in national/local programmes and projects designed to promote health and well being. Where appropriate raise awareness of the benefits of good nutrition and physical activity and of the benefits of safe food preparation and storage.

5. Consumers or customers/patients :

The key participants in workplace health improvement programmes.

Messengers – messages received through WHP are taken into the wider community by this group.

Q 2. Obesity is clearly a complex problem for both the individual and for society. 'Systems thinking' provides new ways to consider how to collectively address obesity, where biology interacts with social, cultural and built environmental factors in infinite permutations and combinations. The systems that give rise to the obesity epidemic function at multiple levels, and there are important interactions between these levels.

“Systems thinking is an enterprise aimed at seeing how things are connected to each other within some notion of a whole entity.” (Peters, Health Res Policy and Systems, 2014).

The obstacles that are preventing the application of systems thinking the approach to the control and prevention of obesity :

*Lack of funding

*Lack of support networks of key stakeholders for the initiation of the application

.*Lack of involvement of multiple sectors to address regarding the prevalence of obesity

*Poorly described health system

*Poorly described political system

*Lack of multisystem integration

*Distance between the cause and effect

Q 3.A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO OBESITY

While many industries have long used systems approaches, adoption of systems approaches in the field of obesity prevention and control has lagged by comparison. A similar lag can be seen in other areas of health and public health, but systems approaches have made some inroads in prevention and control, the consequences of the disease, and the potential impact of various control measures

In many ways, the very high stakes (e.g., cost, morbidity, and mortality) and the complexity of the issues with the obesity epidemic make systems approach all the more important.

Given that the field of obesity prevention and control lags in its utilization of a systems approach, the following 5 efforts would facilitate the adoption of such an approach:

Effort 1: utilizing more global approaches

Effort 2: cultivating expertise from multiple disciplines

Effort 3: utilizing systems methods

Two key tools for understanding a system are systems mapping and systems modeling.

Effort 4: applying a systems orientation to traditional approaches

Systems approaches do not have to replace traditional public health methods. In fact, systems methods can help bridge and enhance existing methods.

Effort 5: Bridging research, education, policy, and action

Bringing systems approaches to obesity prevention and control involves shifts in research, education, policy, and action.