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'The solution needs to be complex.' Obese adults' attitudes about the effectiveness of individual and population based interventions for obesity

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Version 2 2024-06-04, 06:43
Version 1 2014-10-28, 09:42
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-04, 06:43 authored by Samantha ThomasSamantha Thomas, S Lewis, J Hyde, D Castle, P Komesaroff
Background
Previous studies of public perceptions of obesity interventions have been quantitative and based on general population surveys. This study aims to explore the opinions and attitudes of obese individuals towards population and individual interventions for obesity in Australia.

Methods
Qualitative methods using in-depth semi-structured telephone interviews with a community sample of obese adults (Body Mass Index ≥30). Theoretical, purposive and strategic recruitment techniques were used to ensure a broad sample of obese individuals with different types of experiences with their obesity. Participants were asked about their attitudes towards three population based interventions (regulation, media campaigns, and public health initiatives) and three individual interventions (tailored fitness programs, commercial dieting, and gastric banding surgery), and the effectiveness of these interventions.

Results
One hundred and forty two individuals (19-75 years) were interviewed. Participants strongly supported non-commercial interventions that were focused on encouraging individuals to make healthy lifestyle changes (regulation, physical activity programs, and public health initiatives). There was less support for interventions perceived to be invasive or high risk (gastric band surgery), stigmatising (media campaigns), or commercially motivated and promoting weight loss techniques (commercial diets and gastric banding surgery).

Conclusion
Obese adults support non-commercial, non-stigmatising interventions which are designed to improve lifestyles, rather than promote weight loss.

History

Journal

BMC public health

Volume

10

Pagination

1-9

Location

London, England

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

1471-2458

Language

eng

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.

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2010, Thomas et al.

Publisher

BioMed Central