Obesity prevention : the role of policies, laws and regulations Swinburn, Boyd 2008, Obesity prevention : the role of policies, laws and regulations, Australia and New Zealand health policy, vol. 5, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1186/1743-8462-5-12. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads swinburn-obesitypreventionthe-2008.pdf Published version application/pdf 448.18KB 260 Title Obesity prevention : the role of policies, laws and regulations Author(s) Swinburn, Boyd Journal name Australia and New Zealand health policy Volume number 5 Start page 1 End page 7 Total pages 7 Publisher BioMed Central Ltd Place of publication London, U.K. Publication date 2008-06-05 ISSN 1743-8462 Summary The commercial drivers of the obesity epidemic are so influential that obesity can be considered a robust sign of commercial success – consumers are buying more food, more cars and more energy-saving machines. It is unlikely that these powerful economic forces will change sufficiently in response to consumer desires to eat less and move more or corporate desires to be more socially responsible. When the free market creates substantial population detriments and health inequalities, government policies are needed to change the ground rules in favour of population benefits. Concerted action is needed from governments in four broad areas: provide leadership to set the agenda and show the way; advocate for a multi-sector response and establish the mechanisms for all sectors to engage and enhance action; develop and implement policies (including laws and regulations) to create healthier food and activity environments, and; secure increased and continued funding to reduce obesogenic environments and promote healthy eating and physical activity. Policies, laws and regulations are often needed to drive the environmental and social changes that, eventually, will have a sustainable impact on reducing obesity. An 'obesity impact assessment' on legislation such as public liability, urban planning, transport, food safety, agriculture, and trade may identify 'rules' which contribute to obesogenic environments. In other areas, such as marketing to children, school food, and taxes/levies, there may be opportunities for regulations to actively support obesity prevention. Legislation in other areas such as to reduce climate change may also contribute to obesity prevention ('stealth interventions'). A political willingness to use policy instruments to drive change will probably be an early hallmark of successful obesity prevention. Notes This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Language eng DOI 10.1186/1743-8462-5-12 Field of Research 111799 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified Socio Economic Objective 920208 Health Inequalities HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2008 Swinburn; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Free to Read? Yes Use Rights Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30017504 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health Public Health Research, Evaluation, and Policy Cluster Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Fri, 14 Aug 2009, 13:54:03 EST Tue, 22 Dec 2009, 14:44:23 EST Fri, 07 Jan 2011, 15:22:12 EST Fri, 26 Aug 2016, 14:18:02 EST Mon, 05 Sep 2016, 15:13:36 EST Tue, 06 Sep 2016, 12:39:27 EST Fri, 07 Sep 2018, 12:01:52 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 111 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 852 Abstract Views, 260 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Fri, 14 Aug 2009, 13:54:03 EST

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