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OPHA Recommends Multi-Sectoral Strategy for Childhood Obesity
Public Health Units are at the Centre of OPHA's Approach to the Obesity Epidemic
by Connie Uetrecht, Executive Director, OPHA
OPHA is intensifying its advocacy efforts on the issue of childhood obesity. Two separate initiatives have recently been undertaken to move this issue forward.
The Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada (CDPAC), has just released a statement drafted by a panel of prominent Canadians that outlines a set of recommendations to end marketing unhealthy foods to Canadian children. The statement (available at www.cdpac.ca) calls upon the Government of Canada, within six months, to appoint a panel of public health experts who will establish an age threshold and stipulate what constitutes unhealthy foods and beverages. The Government would then establish a regulatory framework designed to end all marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children within two years.
Recently, the Toronto Board of Health as been considering steps to take to help reduce the burden of childhood obesity. One effective strategy being considered is the restriction of advertising of food to children. The CDPAC position has reinforced their position and interest in moving forward with action on advertising. They have referred the issue to the Ontario Public Health Association as well as to the Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa) in hopes that OPHA and alPHa will build support for a ban on food advertising to children. The OPHA executive has considered this request and will be deciding its support for this action at its upcome June Board meeting.. This request will also be forwarded by OPHA to the Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance for their support.
In another initiative, OPHA has submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion a set of recommendations regarding a comprehensive obesity strategy for the province. Building on the provincial government's recent announcement of its plan to invest $10 million annually in a child obesity strategy, OPHA has devised a comprehensive, strategy with specific recommendations designed to enhance the capacity of public health professionals to manage the challenge of childhood obesity effectively.
Building on the World Health Organization's finding that prevention is the most feasible option for addressing the childhood obesity epidemic, OPHA's strategy positions public health units as possessing the skills, knowledge, partnerships, and infrastructure to bring about measurable change at the local level.
Further, the strategy acknowledges that, while diet and physical exercise are the obvious specific determinants of obesity, these behaviours occur within an environmental context. The availability of low-cost nutritious food as well as safe and inexpensive places in which people of all socio-economic classes can be active are key determinants of success in the fight against obesity. Creating the capacity for families to make healthy lifestyle choices is one of the foundational principles of the strategy.
OPHA recognizes the need for improved collaboration among organizations, jurisdictions, and sectors in any potentially successful approach to fighting obesity. A comprehensive, coordinated, multi-sectoral, long-term approach to obesity prevention that capitalizes on the capacity of public health units is perhaps the most concise characterization of OPHA's proposal.
OPHA's confidence in its obesity recommendations is based on solid evidence of recent successes that the public health system has enjoyed in implementing the Smoke Free Ontario Strategy. A similarly comprehensive and broadly supported effort against obesity is certain to produce equally admirable results.
Details of the recommendations are available on the OPHA website.
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