How does whole of government action address inequities in obesity? A case study from Australia
Date
2019-01-14
Authors
Pescud, Melanie
Sargent, Ginny
Kelly, Paul
Friel, Sharon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Background: There are many factors across different sectors that contribute to inequities in obesity levels. This
implies the need for action across different government departments and policy domains (hereafter referred to as
whole of government multisectoral action). In this study we explored the public policy attention given to inequities
in obesity using an Australian case study.
Methods: Interviews were conducted with 33 stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of
the whole of government Healthy Weight Initiative (HWI). A thematic analysis was undertaken to identify ways in
which government policy makers and implementers explicitly or implicitly described how actions delivered through
the HWI addressed inequities in obesity within the population.
Results: The analysis revealed that the focus of the HWI was predominantly aimed at the general population, with
minimal attention given to addressing the social distribution of obesity. The reasons for this were explained in
terms of five themes: (1) rationale for a population wide approach; (2) when to apply an equity lens, (3) issues of
government responsibility, (4) philosophically opposing concepts of equity, and (5) tensions across departments as
a result of competing concepts of equity.
Conclusions: It is important to create a shared understanding plus a concern for addressing inequities in public
policy, regardless of whether or not a universal population-wide or a targeted approach is being applied. It is also
important that policies and programs address the social distribution of obesity while understanding local contexts
and needs. In striving to develop policy that brings an explicit focus on health equity, policymakers must consider
the sociological, political, economic, and philosophical tensions at play between different policy actors and
government departments, and identify how to navigate these without reverting to siloed working.
Description
Keywords
Health inequities, Obesity, Whole of government, Public policy
Citation
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Source
International Journal for Equity in Health
Type
Journal article
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Open Access
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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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