Assessing the Feasibility and Impact of Federal Childhood Obesity Policies

• Author: Kelly D. Brownell,Rogan Kersh,Victoria L. Brescoll
• Published date: 01 January 2008
• Date: 01 January 2008
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0002716207309189
• Subject Matter: Articles

178 ANNALS, AAPSS, 615, January 2008

Research on childhood obesity has primarily been con-

ducted by experts in nutrition, psychology, and medi-

cine. Only recently have public policy scholars devoted

serious work to this burgeoning public health crisis.

Here the authors advance that research by surveying

national experts in health/nutrition and health policy on

the public health impact and the political feasibility of

fifty-one federal policy options for addressing child-

hood obesity. Policies that were viewed as politically

infeasible but having a great impact on childhood obe-

sity emphasized outright bans on certain activities. In

contrast, education and information dissemination poli-

cies were viewed as having the potential to receive a

favorable hearing from national policy makers but little

potential public health impact. Both nutrition and pol-

icy experts believed that increasing funding for

research would be beneficial and politically feasible. A

central need for the field is to develop the means to

make high-impact policies more politically feasible.

Keywords: childhood obesity; obesity policy; obesity

prevention; nutrition; public policy; school

lunch

Public health experts and economists have

recently converged on the idea that condi-

tions should be created where behaviors that

improve health and well-being become the

default (Choi et al. 2003; Thaler and Sunstein

2003). For example, there is agreement that

individuals, and the nation as a whole, would be

best served if people enrolled in pension plans.

Some employers do not enroll people unless

employees actively choose to opt-in, while

other employers enroll new employees auto-

matically (while providing them the option to

opt-out). Less than 50 percent of employees

take part in pension plans in the first year if

enrollment is optional, compared to almost 100

percent participation when enrollment is the

default (Choi et al. 2004; Madrian and Shea

2001). Organ donation also illustrates this

point. In European countries where people

must opt-in to become a donor, only 15 percent

are donors. In contrast, in European countries

Assessing the

Feasibility and

Impact of

Federal

Childhood

Obesity Policies

By

VICTORIA L. BRESCOLL,

ROGAN KERSH,

and

KELLY D. BROWNELL

DOI: 10.1177/0002716207309189

FEASIBILITY AND IMPACT OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY POLICIES 179

where donation is the default, 98 percent of the citizens are donors (Johnson and

Goldstein 2003).

In the United States, the default conditions for children promote unhealthy

eating and physical inactivity. Factors such as large portions, high consumption of

soft drinks and high-calorie fast foods, low costs for high-calorie foods and higher

costs for fruits and vegetables, limited access to healthy foods for the poor, and

massive marketing campaigns targeting children are linked to poor diet, high risk

for excess weight gain, and in some cases diseases such as diabetes (Brownell and

Battle-Horgen 2003). Given these powerful forces in the environment, it is hard

to imagine any outcome other than increasing rates of obesity. Today, more than

17 percent of American children and adolescents are overweight1or obese, with

certain subgroups, such as African American youth, having even higher preva-

lence rates (18 to 26 percent) (Ogden et al. 2006). These trends have led to

increased incidences of hypertension, diabetes, and even heart attacks among

obese children (Komaroff 2003; Quattrin et al. 2005; Stephenson 2003).

In the United States, the default conditions for

children promote unhealthy eating and

physical inactivity.

Victoria L. Brescoll is a postdoctoral research associate at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and

Obesity at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. in social psychology from Yale University,

where she was supported by a graduate research fellowship from the National Science

Foundation. She is interested in the applications of social psychology to public policy and law.

She worked in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton under a congressional fellowship

covering a variety of issues related to children and families from the Women’s Research and

Education Institute.

Rogan Kersh is an associate dean and professor of public service at NYU’s Wagner School of

Public Service, where he moved last year from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. He spent

1998 to 2000 at Yale as Robert Wood Johnson Fellow in Health Policy and 2006 as a fellow at

Yale’s Rudd Center. His scholarly publications include Dreams of a More Perfect Union

(Cornell, 2001); Medical Malpractice and the U.S. Health Care System (coeditor; Cambridge,

2006); and more than thirty scholarly articles/book chapters. He is currently completing two

books, one on the politics of obesity and the other a study of interest-group lobbying.

Kelly D. Brownell is a professor of psychology, professor of epidemiology and public health,

and director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, where he also

served as chair of the Department of Psychology. He is in the Institute of Medicine, served as

president of several national organizations, and in 2006 was listed by Time magazine among

“The World’s 100 Most Influential People” in its special issue featuring those “whose power, talent

or moral example is transforming the world.”