Domains of Capacity Building in Whole-Systems Approaches to Prevent Obesity-A "Systematized" Review

Sisitha Jayasinghe; Robert Soward; Lisa Dalton; Timothy P Holloway; Sandra Murray; Kira A E Patterson; Kiran D K Ahuja; Roger Hughes; Nuala M Byrne; Andrew P Hills

doi:10.3390/ijerph191710997

Domains of Capacity Building in Whole-Systems Approaches to Prevent Obesity-A "Systematized" Review

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 2;19(17):10997. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710997.

Affiliations

¹ College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia.
² College of Arts, Law and Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia.
³ School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia.

Abstract

Despite increased awareness of its risks, for the most part, contemporary efforts for obesity prevention have been patchy at best. As such, the burgeoning interest in whole-systems approaches (WSAs) that acknowledge the complex, dynamic nature of overweight and obesity and operate across multiple levels of society is particularly timely. Many components of "community capacity building" (CB), an essential but often neglected aspect of obesity prevention, overlap with "best practice principles" in effective/optimal community-based obesity-prevention initiatives. Rhetoric urging WSAs and community CB in public health abounds although operative and efficacious contemporary examples of these approaches to reducing obesity levels are scarce. The aim of this investigation was to undertake a systematized review of the level of capacity building incorporated in published literature on WSAs targeting obesity to better understand how domains of CB have been incorporated. A PubMed search and a recently published systematic review were utilized to identify WSAs to obesity prevention between 1995-2020. A team-based approach to qualitative thematic data analysis was used to systematically assess and describe each intervention regarding explicit capacity-building practice. Despite not being specifically designed for building capacity, a significant proportion of the WSAs studied in the current report had implemented several CB domains.

Keywords: capacity building; community intervention; overweight and obesity; prevention; whole-systems approach.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Capacity Building*
Humans
Obesity* / prevention & control
Overweight
Public Health

Grants and funding

This research was funded by a National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant (#113672) as part of the CAPITOL Project. The study funder had no role in study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data; in writing the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The contents of this article are the responsibility of the authors and do not reflect the views of the NHMRC.