One of the most pressing unmet challenges for preventing and controlling epidemic obesity is ensuring that socially disadvantaged populations benefit from relevant public health interventions. Obesity levels are disproportionately high in ethnic minority, low-income, and other socially marginalized US population groups. Current policy, systems, and environmental change interventions target obesity promoting aspects of physical, economic, social, and information environments but do not necessarily account for inequities in environmental contexts and, therefore, may perpetuate disparities.

In THIS ARTICLE recently published in the American Journal of Public Health, Shiriki K. Kumanyika, PhD, MPHI, proposes a framework to guide practitioners and researchers in public health and other fields that contribute to obesity prevention in identifying ways to give greater priority to equity issues when undertaking policy, systems, and environmental change strategies. The core argument is that these approaches to improving options for healthy eating and physical activity should be linked to strategies that account for or directly address social determinants of health. Kumanyika provides research and practice examples of its use in the US context. The approach may also apply to other health problems and in countries where similar inequities are observed.

Source: Am J Public Health. Shiriki K. Kumanyika. Published online ahead of print August 15, 2019: e1–e8. doi:10. 2105/AJPH.2019.305221