How Americans View the Fight to Reduce Obesity: Findings From a National Health Survey

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: An estimated one-in-six Americans live in communities receiving Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) funding. Thirty-nine of the 50 funded CPPW communities have a focus on overweight/obesity (obesity). All communities used media as a strategy in their prevention efforts. Understanding domains such as attitudes, beliefs, intentions and behaviors relevant to individuals and communities taking action to address obesity is relevant to CPPW media and communication efforts. After the establishment of community-level obesity initiatives, analyses explored whether respondents in these communities, as well as those at particular risk, differ in relevant ways from their counterparts.

Methods: CDC licensed obesity-related data from the fall 2011 Porter Novelli HealthStyles survey; a survey with 3,696 respondents recruited from Knowledge Networks’ nationally representative online research panel (KnowledgePanel^®). Weighted, descriptive analyses explored obesity-related domains by characteristics such as living in a CPPW community with an obesity focus (CPPW respondents) (14.8%) and being told that you/family member is/is at risk of being overweight (obesity-group) (40.5%).

Results: Respondents overall expressed fairly moderate or neutral attitudes about obesity, the attendant issues of healthy-eating and physical activity (PA), and these being a problem in their community. Generally, respondents somewhat agreed that it was important for their community to address obesity and its contributing factors. Fifty-two percent saw obesity as both a community and an individual problem. Overall, 69% reported seeing relevant advertising in the past 30 days with more than half seeing ads encouraging individuals to eat healthy foods and get PA; 84% saw/heard them on TV/radio. CPPW respondents agreed more strongly than their counterparts that obesity and its contributing factors were problems in their community. CPPW respondents more strongly agreed that it was important that the community get involved in addressing obesity, and that their community should do more to address the issue. CPPW respondents were more likely to have the view that obesity is both a community and an individual problem. CPPW respondents were more likely to have seen obesity-relevant messages on billboards/posters, Twitter, and at sports or community event. Compared to the group not at-risk for obesity, the at-risk respondents more strongly agreed that obesity was a problem in their communities. At-risk respondents more strongly endorsed that obesity-associated individual and community factors were important for the community to address and that their community should be more involved. At-risk group respondents were more likely to say that they were taking obesity-related actions (e.g., taking action to eat healthy foods) and had stronger intentions to support community obesity efforts. At-risk group respondents were more likely to have seen obesity-relevant ads and to have seen them on TV/radio, on-line, and at work.

Conclusions: HealthStyles survey data provides evidence that attitudes about actions that should be taken on the community-level are associated with individuals being told they are at heightened risk for obesity. These data also provide evidence that in CPPW communities focusing on obesity and using media, there is a heightened sense that obesity is a problem that warrants community-level action.

Implications for research and/or practice: Implications for including media as a strategy to prevent obesity are discussed.