The role of behavioural change in tackling obesity

Sustainable development is a key cog within the scope of the globe. The World Economic Forum indicates that sustainable development encompasses the need to look at the promotion of healthy lives of individuals. In this regard, the management of obesity falls within this category as specifically under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) number three. For this reason, the role of healthiness provides a key plank in the attainment of sustainable development. Nonetheless, obesity continues to pose a huge challenge to the attainment of this key sustainable development goal. The need to address the challenges brought about by obesity stems from the increased rates of prevalence. However, behavioral change can be helpful in ensuring that the tide of obesity has been dealt with, leading to sustainable development.

It is notable that obesity falls in the category of healthiness in reference to the sustainable development goals. The United Nations has observed that the achievement of this sustainable development goal in the realm of healthy living and promotion of wellbeing formulates a critical approach in attaining other social, environmental, and economic objectives. However, despite this instance, obesity has continued to be highly prevalent in the world. As such, the impartation of a change mechanism with regards to behavior would be necessary to deal with the obesity prevalence. It is in this context that the behavior change wheel comes in handy. The behavior change wheel offers a structured mechanism that designs an approach relating to the interventions of behavioral change. As such, the behavior change wheel gives rise to comprehensive as well as systematic breakdown relating to the options that are available in the context of behavioral change. Notably, the behavior change wheel incorporates three components that relate to behavior strategies and interventions; capability, opportunity, as well as motivation. Based on this explanation, the following sections will be categorised based on each of the three aspects of the behavior change wheel. Moreover, it is important to note that the issue of obesity has different stakeholders that should be analysed via the behavior change wheel; government, corporate sector, the NGOs, as well as the consumers.

Capability

The aspect of capability is showcased as the physical as well as psychological capacity by individuals to relate and resonate with the activity concerned with an aim of fostering the needed behavioral change. Governments across the world are key stakeholders as regards the escalating cases of obesity in the area given that it is responsible for regulation. As such, it is upon the governments to come up with measures that control obesity through healthy living and consumption. From the explanations, capability induces the need to create both physical and psychological barriers that prevent individuals from engaging with the behaviors that lead to a certain detrimental situation. By coming up with legislation that curbs the continued consumption of foods that lead to obesity, governments would create a psychological obstruction in the minds of the consumers. It is notable that most markets are laced with foods that lead to the escalation of obesity to the populace.Foods such as sweetened products are consumed in a large scale by populaces, fostering a potent situation for the increase in obese reports. By crafting legislation that requires the food companies to process specific amounts of fatty foods, the consumers would duly shift their psychological expectations regarding foods and accept the alternatives in the market. More so, by making it a compliance issue for the food processors to abide to the formulated legislation, a decrease in the foods that conjure obesity would be witnessed. From these explanations, the capability in terms of governmental legislation would rid the market a huge chunk of fatty foods and making the consumers search for alternatives.

Also, the role of the governments can be explicated by the need to come up with more taxes for the companies producing foods that eventually create a fertile situation for the proliferation of obesity. The aspect of capability as founded on the behavior change wheel incorporates an element of physical barrier on the part of consumption towards a specific thing or product. Of notice is that a good number of countries have weak public health laws, more so in relation to control of obesity and overweight issues. This situation formulates a scenario that breeds a ground for the manufacture, sale, and eventual consumption of unfit food products. Through punitive tax measures that should levied on businesses selling unfit foods to the public, a huge decrease regarding such foods would be experienced. It is, as a result, recommended that the administrations in the world introduce “junk food tax” as a remedy of dealing with the exponential cases of obesity. More so, such taxes would be repressive enough to persuade food processors to do away with their volumes of bulk foods, ensuring that the market is flooded with fit foods for consumption. Besides, it would be necessary for the governments to incentivise their approach by offering tax cuts for companies that do not sell junk food. It is based on these explanations that through the tax tariffs, the food processors and sellers would change their tact and introduce fitter products for the public.

Opportunity

In the context of the aspect of opportunity, two stakeholders come out as being key to the behaviour change that aims at curtailing obesity; NGOs as well as the corporate sector. Opportunity has been identified as the various factors that are outside the purview of individuals but have the potency to shape the ensuing behavior. As such, opportunity can be explicated as the underlying factors that shape the manner in which individual think, having a huge influence on their behavior. It is notable that opportunity arises both as a physical aspect as well as a social element. Despitemost countries having various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that teach about health matter, the populaces still suffer from obesity. For this reason, and based in the scope that NGOs are outside the domain of the consumers, they can start having campaigns, shows, and rallies that enlighten on the need to observe healthy living. The outcome of such an instance would be that the masses would shift their attention as founded on the enlightenment offered, and start consuming healthier foods. Furthermore, some NGOs do not actively lobby for policies that would aid in the process of promoting better health. It is, as a result, advisable that these NGOs should put more pressure on the social workers and other health-related volunteers to attain their set objectives in terms of obesity by campaigning for better consumption of healthier food products.

Social opportunity as regards ridding off obesity would come in the shape of the corporate sector educating the masses about the change in their products and the need for observing healthier lifestyles. Specifically, social opportunity inculcates a potential encouragement on the components that are within a system with intent to influence the change in behavioral tendencies. For ages, the corporate sector has been lukewarm as regards championing for the beliefs of better and healthier consumption. Mostly, the corporate sector has instead commoditised its products and hence created an aura of consumerism despite the safety standards involved. To reverse such a situation, it is advised that the corporate sector should undertake engagement tours to interact and educate the public on the need to phase out some of its products from the market. In this case, the outcome would lead to social opportunity that removes all the unfit and junk foods from the market. Also, there has been discrimination in terms of the adverts made by the corporate sector and as a result playing a huge part in the increase of obesity cases. However, the scenario could be addressed by ensuring that the corporate sector remakes new adverts that incorporate healthier foods as a way of wooing the public. It is founded on these explanations that the social opportunity has been identified through the scope of the role played by the corporate sector to deal with obesity.

Motivation

Consumers are the sole stakeholders that fall within the category of motivation. Of notice is that motivation entail the various mental processes that act to motivate and direct the distinct behaviors of individuals. As such, motivation plays a role in conjuring habits in individuals as well as indoctrinating both emotional and habitual ways of decision making. More so, the aspect of motivation leads to reflective and automatic outcomes. Reflective motivation would be attained by the consumers through the belief that consistent healthy eating will need an improvement on the self-regulation as well as cognitive skills. Notably, consumers have for ages been consuming junk products that injure their healthiness. As such, it would take cognitive responses to ensure that the required change as regards consumption has been supported by self-regulation practices. Cognitive skills persuade an individual to align to the desirable behavior and as a result bring about the needed change. In essence, a persistence as regards the use of their cognitive abilities will provide a supporting pillar in relation to changing their preferences about junk food.

Automatic motivation would also be needed by the consumers as a spur that creates a change in their behavior. Statistics have shown that more individuals are becoming obese. As such, the situation when combined with the statistics from the overweight levels pose a glim picture on the consumerism. Founded on this argument, an urgent need to ensure that the consumers change their minds regarding consumption of junks is required. Automatic motivation imprints an established means of routine on the part of the consumer as a way of creating new behaviour. In this context, the change in behaviour would be attained by having the consumers indoctrinate repetitive habits of consuming healthier food by leveraging on their cognitive capacities. Moreover, automatic motivation would inject emotions that lead to the conceptualisation of innate dispositions on the consumers. The belief that continued consumption of healthier foods mean that individuals, in this case consumers, would acquire impulses that negate the need to purchase the junk foods. From these explanations, an associative form of learning would be inculcated into the consumers, helping to change the behaviours of consuming junk food and reducing obesity.

Dr. Wanjiru Njugi

PhD student –Global Health