A Fast Track Open Access article published in the Health Behavior and Policy Review Journal.
Authors:
Alexandra B. Morshed, PhD
Valerie Madas, MPH
Sarah J. Kang, MPH
Fanice Thomas, PhD
Rachel G. Tabak, PhD
Ian Thomas, PhD
Mary C. Politi, PhD
Amy A. Eyler, PhD
Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD
Elizabeth A. Dodson, PhD
Edward Tsai, PhD
Renee G. Parks, MS
Ross C. Brownson, PhD
Objective:
There is a broad array of health equity policy actions that may be important for addressing social determinants of obesity. The objective of this study was to identify local policy actions most salient for addressing health equity among practitioners, policymakers, and researchers active in obesity.
Methods:
We surveyed 195 participants in August-November 2020, including US public health practitioners, local policymakers, and researchers active in obesity policy or health equity. We asked them to select the most important health equity policy actions and rate them for potential impact and feasibility.
Results:
Living wage and access to early education scored highly across 3 dimensions of importance, potential impact, and feasibility among 3 of the 4 groups – local public service employees and policymakers, academics, and others. Local public service employees and policymakers also rated expanded childcare and job/skills training programs highly across all 3 dimensions. Respondents rated policy actions higher for potential impact than feasibility.
Conclusions:
We present novel, timely findings for prioritizing health equity policy actions for addressing obesity at the local level. Several policy actions not typically considered in obesity research were identified as salient by groups relevant to local obesity policymaking.
Source: Health Behavior and Policy Review, Volume 11, Number 2, April 2024, pp. 1539-1548(10)
Publisher: Paris Scholar Publishing Ltd.
Article Link: https://doi.org/10.14485/HBPR.11.2.5