Borsika A Rabin | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Cross-national comparison of environmental and policy correlates of obesity in Europe.

BACKGROUND: Despite the growing agreement that modern environments fuel increased food consumption and decreased physical activity, few studies have addressed environmental and policy correlates of obesity. This study describes obesity patterns across Europe and identifies macroenvironmental factors associated with obesity prevalence at a national level. METHODS: Data on obesity prevalence and indicators of the physical, economic, and policy environment were assembled from international databases for 24 European countries. Coefficient estimates between overall, male, and female obesity prevalence and each independent variable were calculated using linear regression. RESULTS: The obesity prevalence varied widely across countries and between genders with higher values in Central and Eastern European countries and lower values in France, Italy, and some Scandinavian countries. Statistically significant inverse associations were observed between overall and female obesity prevalence and variables from the following domains: economic (real domestic product), food (available fat), urbanization (urban population), transport (passenger cars, price of gasoline, motorways), and policy (governance indicators). There was also a negative association between overall obesity and available fruits/vegetables, and between female obesity and single-member households. Male obesity was inversely associated with available fruits/vegetables and density of motorways. The magnitude of the coefficient estimates suggests stronger associations for female obesity than for male obesity in all cases. CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory study suggests a need to conduct additional research examining the role of obesogenic environments in European countries, with a special focus on policy-related variables, and to further study gender-specific differences in obesity and its correlates.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗

PubMed2006

Methodologic challenges in disseminating evidence-based interventions to promote physical activity.

During the past decade, numerous intervention studies have been published on the effectiveness of programs to promote active living; however, few studies have addressed the dissemination of effective physical activity interventions. Both community settings and healthcare settings are important locations for dissemination of evidence-based programs and policies. A major gap in the existing literature involves the appropriate methodologic approaches for planning, evaluating, and reporting on dissemination efforts for effective and promising interventions in these locations. To address this gap, two hypothetical dissemination studies are presented: a quasi-experimental study of local health agencies (Scenario 1) and a group-randomized trial of clinical practices (Scenario 2). These studies help to elucidate the barriers and opportunities for implementing evidence-based physical activity interventions across different settings. Based on the scenarios, the existing literature, and the authors' experience, dissemination challenges that researchers and practitioners may experience (i.e., issues of design, measures of outcomes and external validity, the balance between fidelity and adaptation to local settings, and the review and funding of dissemination science) are discussed. Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are invited to address the issues outlined in this article in order to bridge the gap between the generation of new knowledge on efficacious physical activity interventions and widespread application of these approaches in community and clinical settings.

Community Health Services↗