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Strong support for broad policies to prevent childhood obesity among mothers in New South Wales, Australia
Author(s) -
Esdaile Emma,
Owen Katherine B.,
Xu Huilan,
Baur Louise A.,
Rissel Chris,
Wen Li Ming
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
health promotion journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2201-1617
pISSN - 1036-1073
DOI - 10.1002/hpja.351
Subject(s) - childhood obesity , government (linguistics) , public health , obesity , health promotion , medicine , population health , intervention (counseling) , promotion (chess) , public policy , environmental health , health policy , logistic regression , health economics , descriptive statistics , nursing , political science , economic growth , overweight , economics , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , politics , law
Issue addressed Support for broad policies to prevent childhood obesity is not clear. This study aimed to investigate the level of support for state government health promotion policies among mothers with infants and its associated factors. Methods This secondary analysis of data from 1155 mothers in NSW assessed approval for six policy options derived from public health approaches to obesity. Descriptive statistics were used to show the extent of policy approval across the cohort. Logistic regression models tested associations between perceived susceptibility and perceived severity of childhood obesity and approval of each policy option. Results The proportion of mothers who felt these policy options were ‘about the right amount’ (56%‐68%) or ‘not going far enough’ (24%‐36%), collectively represented 89%‐95% approval of government intervention. In comparison, 5%‐11% felt that these policies were ‘going too far’. Factors associated with their levels of support varied between each policy option, based on mothers’ characteristics and perceptions of childhood obesity. Conclusion These findings indicate high support for government intervention to prevent obesity among mothers in NSW and support health promotion advocacy in this area. So what? Governments should give due consideration to implementing each of the six policy options and prioritise the implementation of restrictions on fast food advertising in publicly owned or controlled areas.