Turning the tables on obesity: young people, IT and social movements

Abstract

Despite the rising incidence of childhood obesity, international data from EUROSTAT show 7 that the prevalence of obesity at ages 15-19 years remains <5%, which offers an important 8 opportunity for preventing subsequent adult obesity. Young people engage poorly, even 9 obstructively, with conventional health initiatives, and are often considered 'hard-to-reach'. However, when approached in the language of youth, via IT, they express great concern, and unwanted weight gain in young people can be prevented by age-appropriate independent, online guidance. Additionally, when shown online how 'added value' for industry can generate consumer harms as free market 'externalities', and how obesogenic 'Big Food' production and distribution incur environmental and ethical costs, they make lasting behavioural changes that attenuate weight gain. This evidence offers a novel approach to obesity prevention, handing the initiative to young people themselves, and supporting them with evidence-based methods to develop, propagate and 'own' social movements that can simultaneously address geo-political concerns of youth and obesity prevention.

‘You know what, I’m in the trend as well’: understanding the interplay between digital and real-life social influences on the food and activity choices of young adults

“…high-risk BMI of ≥27•5, according to BMI cut-offs for Asian populations (6) , this proportion almost doubles to 22•4 % for adults who are in their 30s (30-39 years) (7) . Similar patterns of weight gain have been observed internationally such as in Europe, Australia and the USA (8) . As losing weight and maintaining weight loss is challenging, preventing excessive weight gain is important for having a healthy body weight.…”

“…The social media environment has massive potential to generate global changes in attitudes, among and driven by young people. Social movement for climate change, or against US gun laws, are recent examples, and the Accepted manuscript opportunity clearly exists for young people to harness social media to combat obesity and diet-related chronic diseases (8) .…”

“…Mitigating the negative perceptions of the gym culture, addressing gendered norms around physical activity, and promoting the incorporation of physical activity in social gatherings, as done with food may be ways to encourage physical activity in young adults. Given the limited success in existing population-level obesity interventions co-designing health campaigns with young adults for improved engagement and efforts to understand and improve digital platforms to support healthful choices (8) presents a valuable area of future research. They're cashing in on it.…”

Treating chronic diseases without tackling excess adiposity promotes multimorbidity

“…38 Well-intentioned health education has repeatedly proved ineffective, particularly among young people, for whom a radical contemporary approach has been proposed. 39 In our opinion, health authorities and funders would be wise to invest as much in researching and providing effective weight management, to tackle excess adiposity earlier, as is allocated for discovering and using new drugs which address non-obesity-related drivers of specific chronic diseases. Diet and lifestyle interventions place demands on the patient and have often been neglected on the grounds that many patients reject them or give up early and regain lost weight.…”