Understanding and Addressing Obesity

Introduction

The presence of good health is essential to support physical and mental well-being of the people along with needed for improving their social lives. The presence of healthy population also helps in economic progress because healthy people live longer and contribute more production through their work in the community to assist economic progress (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2019). Thus, in this study, obesity which is leading health problem is to be discussed and the underlying behaviour contributing the development of obesity is to be explained. Moreover, theoretical construct is to be used to explain the way of overcoming obesity. The justification of the approach mentioned under the theoretical construct for obesity management is to be explained.

Explaining issues and needs of change in Obesity

The health intervention for obesity is to be mentioned to inform individuals in the population regarding the way they can cope with the disease and avoid its risk along with negative impact on their health (Chooi et al., 2019). Obesity is referred to the complex disease or health problem in which people developed increased amount of fat in the body that causes deteriorated health impact such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and others (Bray et al., 2017). The high energy-dense foods includes increased amount of fats, carbohydrates and sugar with less presence of minerals and vitamins that are vital for the functioning of the body. This leads the body to intake increased amount of inappropriate calories which adds to the body weight (Espinosa‐Carrasco et al., 2018). As argued by Sirico et al. (2018), lack of physical exercise leads the body unable to use the stored fats in the form of energy. It leads individuals to add to their body weight as the fats get deposited instead of being used as energy. Thus, the key underlying behaviour which contributes to the development and risk of obesity includes eating increased portion of high energy-dense food such as fast foods, soda and others along with physical inactivity. In this respect, the key behaviour to be targeted for change is making people develop attitude to eat healthy foods that are low in fat and involve in physical activity.

In 2019, it is reported that 28.7% of the adults who are within 25-30 years of age in the UK are obese with additional 35.6% adults who are overweight and are a risk of obesity (commonslibrary.parliament.uk, 2019). The statistics indicate that increased number of adults in the UK is suffering from obesity making it a key health issue to be experienced in everyday life. Moreover, 67.2% of men and 61.5% of women in the UK among adults who are between 25-30 years of age are suffering from obesity in the UK (commonslibrary.parliament.uk, 2019). This indicates that men in the UK are vulnerable to face obesity compared to women. The men reported that due to extensive office working hours and inability to maintain work-life balance in most cases they fail to abide by effective diet or maintain effective physical activity. It is evident as they have to sit and work for long hours failing to maintain activity (employeebenefits.co.uk, 2018). Therefore, the intervention to be made is to be target to the men within 25-30 years of age in the UK who are suffering from obesity.

Theoretical Approach for Obesity

The intervention to be made is supporting behaviour change among obese men of 25-30 years of age in the UK is to make them adopt behaviour of healthy diet and execute everyday physical activity. The theoretical approach of Behaviour Change Wheel model is to be used in implementing the behaviour change for the target individuals who are men in the UK within 25-30 years of age. The theory of planned behaviour mentions that subjective norms, beliefs, attitude and perceived control for behaviour together shape the behavioural intention of individuals (Chevance et al., 2017). In this study, the theory is not to be used because Theory of Planned Behaviour leads to assume that the person who is to make behaviour change is already motivated to perform the action which in reality may not be the action causing hardship in making behaviour change. Moreover, it does not consider the influence of additional variable such as intention and inspiration in making behaviour change, in turn, limiting the success of making the change (Mazloomy-Mahmoodabad et al., 2017). However, Behaviour Change Wheel model takes initiatives from the initial stage to ensure motivation is provided to people to make behaviour change and then progress to implement strategies to achieve successful change in behaviour.

The Transtheoritical Model (TTM) of behaviour change is theoretical approach which assesses the ability and readiness of a person in executing a new behaviour and mention strategies to the individual in making the change (Ham et al., 2016). The limitation of using TTM in behaviour change is that in making the change it does not considers the social influences that are to be considered in making the change (Romain et al., 2016). However, in Behaviour Change Wheel model, it is seen that it considers the social context of the person and accordingly provides them strategies to ensure making the behaviour change in a successful way (Barker et al., 2016). Moreover, COM-B model is not to be used as it is already present in the centre of the Behaviour Change Wheel model along with additional features to ensure the later model allows making successful behaviour change.

According to Behaviour Change Wheel model, the initial step in making behaviour change is creating motivation, capability and opportunity for the people willing to make change in behaviour by considering their physical, social, emotional and mental context (Barker et al., 2016). The men of 25-30 years of age in the UK mentions that they are unable to make physical activity and involve in fast food that is making them obese because of lack of opportunity in making time out of work to eat healthy and remain active (Mohammadbeigi et al., 2018). In this context, according to the model, they are to be provided strategies regarding the way they can make time out of their strict working schedule in performing exercise and eating healthy to allow them to have opportunity in making behaviour change. This is because without opportunity to overcome the barriers of behaviour change, the individual avoids involving in considering changing out of lack of interest (Burgoine et al., 2018). Moreover, to make the behaviour change successful according to the model it is required that the target individuals are motivated through information about the positive impact of management of obesity through healthy eating and physical activity. The target individuals are to be trained regarding the way to make time and are to be provided knowledge of the actions to be taken for healthy eating along with extensive physical activity in making them capable of accomplishing behaviour change. This is because without motivation and capability, the individuals avoid making behaviour change as they do not understand the way actions are to be made for the change and feel lack of inspiration in initiating the change process (Barker et al., 2016).

The second step in Behaviour Change Wheel model informs that to make behaviour change strategies such as training, coercion, incentivisation, restrictions, modelling, education, environmental restriction and others are to be implemented based on the objective of intervention (Ogden, 2016). According to the model, to lower obesity among men who are 25-30 years of age in the UK, the initial strategy is offering them training regarding the way they are to change their behaviour and perform different exercise to avoid weight gain and obesity. The other strategy is educating them about the restricted food which is not to be taken by them to control obesity. This is because without effective restricted diet the obese people would intend to eat more unhealthy food which contributes to worsening their health instead of improvement (Turner-McGrievy et al., 2017).

As per the model, the target individuals are to be educated regarding the impact of healthy food and physical activity to make them change their behaviour to overcome obesity. This is because without health education the individuals are unable to understand the importance of their behaviour change, in turn, making them ignore to make the change (Malmberg et al., 2020). The third step of the Behaviour Change Wheel model mentions that regulation, service provision, legislation and others are required in making behaviour change (Gould et al., 2017). According to the model, actions are to be taken to implement Fat Tax and Sugar Tax so that the sale of high energy-dense food is minimised by raising their prices. Further, legislation at work is to be made where employees are to be provided fixed time each day on compulsory basis to involve in physical exercise to avoid obesity and other associated health issues.

Justification of suggested behaviour change

In the study by Wurtman and Wurtman (2018), it is mentioned that people feel less hunger and fuller are eating protein and low calorie diet instead of foods that are high in fat and carbohydrate content. Moreover, more energy is required in metabolising and storing protein compared to other micronutrients. This leads the obese individuals to use stored fats to be changed into energy, in turn, contributing them to easily lose weight. In the study of Bauman et al., (2017), it is informed that extensive physical activity or exercise leads individuals to increase their energy expenditure that assists them to balance and lose weight. This is because trough exercise specific parts of the body are intended to burn fat as energy to ensure reducing the overall body weight. Thus, the intervention of making behaviour change to eat healthy foods and involve in physical exercise is appropriate action in reducing fat from the body and lower body weight in turn managing obesity.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that men of 25-30 years of age in the UK are more vulnerable in facing obesity compared to women. This is because they are unable to maintain healthy diet and perform physical activity out of lack of time due to their work pressure. The intervention of allowing them to change behaviour in eating healthy and performing physical activity to manage obesity is to be achieved with the help of using the Behaviour Change Wheel model.

References

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Chooi, Y.C., Ding, C. and Magkos, F., 2019. The epidemiology of obesity. Metabolism, 92, pp.6-10.

Espinosa‐Carrasco, J., Burokas, A., Fructuoso, M., Erb, I., Martín‐García, E., Gutiérrez‐Martos, M., Notredame, C., Maldonado, R. and Dierssen, M., 2018. Time‐course and dynamics of obesity‐related behavioral changes induced by energy‐dense foods in mice. Addiction Biology, 23(2), pp.531-543.

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Mohammadbeigi, A., Asgarian, A., Moshir, E., Heidari, H., Afrashteh, S., Khazaei, S. and Ansari, H., 2018. Fast food consumption and overweight/obesity prevalence in students and its association with general and abdominal obesity. Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene, 59(3), p.E236.

Ogden, J., 2016. Celebrating variability and a call to limit systematisation: the example of the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy and the Behaviour Change Wheel. Health psychology review, 10(3), pp.245-250.

Romain, A.J., Bernard, P., Hokayem, M., Gernigon, C. and Avignon, A., 2016. Measuring the processes of change from the transtheoretical model for physical activity and exercise in overweight and obese adults. American Journal of Health Promotion, 30(4), pp.272-278.

Sirico, F., Bianco, A., D'Alicandro, G., Castaldo, C., Montagnani, S., Spera, R., Di Meglio, F. and Nurzynska, D., 2018. Effects of physical exercise on adiponectin, leptin, and inflammatory markers in childhood obesity: systematic review and meta-analysis. Childhood Obesity, 14(4), pp.207-217.

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Turner-McGrievy, G., Mandes, T. and Crimarco, A., 2017. A plant-based diet for overweight and obesity prevention and treatment. Journal of geriatric cardiology: JGC, 14(5), p.369.

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Appendices

Appendix 1:

Intervention Mapping:

Step 1: The needs assessment of the target group indicates that they required to have assistance in managing healthy diet and enhanced physical activity to overcome issues of obesity.

Step 2: The intervention to support behaviour change in having healthy diet and executing physical activity for people suffering from obesity leads to the outcome of losing extra body fat and maintaining healthy body weight out of well-being actions.

Appendix 2:

Behaviour Change Wheel Model

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