Obesity and Public Health Interventions

[chickenfeet]

I'm at work reading the latest issue of Healthcare Papers (vol. 9 no.1)which deals with obesity and public health strategies for dealing with it. It's a subject that interests me greatly; partly because I struggle to stay at a healthy weight and partly because some of the more obvious potential interventions mesh with other interests of mine. More safe cycle paths and decent facilities for my U16s to practice on, for example, would both be the sort of intervention that ought to be included in a comprehensive Obesity Strategy. Such interventions don't happen for three reasons. First, the payer doesn't see the financial benefit. The city or the school board has no financial interest in healthy kids growing up to be healthy adults. Second, it isn't sexy in a political sense. Giving the pittance available for amateur sport to a handful of Olympic athletes rather than spending it on community interventions provides politicians with photo-opportunities with popular medal winners. My kids, and thousands like them, don't. Third, the provider lobbies are powerful enough to prevent healthcare dollars being switched from acute care to public health interventions. The one-time cost of attracting one out of province specialist to Sick Kids is roughly double the total annual cost of youth rugby in the GTA.

Layer onto that set of public policy problems, the influence of industry lobbies; meat, dairy, fast food, automotive and so on, all of whom have a vested interest in over consumption and/or inactivity and one can easily see why next to nothing is being done about one of the biggest healthcare problems the world faces.