Population approaches to obesity prevention

This chapter presents a conceptualization of the causes of population obesity, discusses the implications of this conceptualization for public health interventions, and reviews empirical work that has attempted to address obesity treatment and prevention in entire populations. Youth interventions have been delivered primarily through schools. Adult interventions have used heterogeneous delivery modes. All have relied heavily on educational messages encouraging greater physical activity and a more healthy diet. The overall outcomes of these interventions are thought to be very modestly positive, with the strongest results seen in programmes for children that have high physical activity requirements. Unfortunately, the sizes of the overall effect seen in these studies are considerably smaller than the rate of increase in population obesity.