Review shows breadth of interventions to reduce obesity prevalence, but high quality evidence is lacking

A review of available literature into settings-based interventions to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity, carried out by the Public Health Wales Evidence Service, has identified a lack of good quality evidence relating to actions carried out in this space. 

The review examined 26 existing systematic reviews of interventions published since 2017, and asked what population level whole systems or settings-based interventions were effective in stabilising or reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults. However, the evidence was found to be generally lacking, inconsistent or not conclusive. 

Despite this, there were some interventions that were backed by good to moderate quality evidence: 

• School gardening programmes were effective in increasing fibre intake among participants 

• Increasing the availability of low-calorie drinks in the home can reduce children’s consumption of sugary drinks 

• School-delivered and computer-based nutrition interventions for promoting healthy eating are effective in reducing children’s intake of sweetened drinks, although it wasn’t clear whether this had an impact on overall BMI. 

Other interventions reviewed included workplace dietary behaviour change initiatives for adults, and school-based interventions for reducing children’s consumption of sweetened drinks and increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables.  However, the evidence around these interventions was either inconclusive or of poor quality, so researchers’ confidence in the findings was limited for these types of intervention. 

Amy Hookway, Principal Evidence and Knowledge Analyst in the Evidence Service at Public Health Wales, said: “Reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity within the population will have a significant impact on the overall health of the nation. 

“Our work to assess the existing evidence base from interventions that have been carried out elsewhere can help us determine what interventions to explore in more depth, with a view to assessing whether they might be suitable for Wales”. 

The full report can be found here.