Wirkungsvolle Prävention chronischer Krankheiten

[Nutrition counseling in medical practices-a cross-sectional study]

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study was to assess the status of nutrition care and counseling in German medical practices, including physicians' nutrition interest and knowledge, existing obstacles, and possible ways of improving nutrition care.

METHODS

After development and a two-stage pretest, questionnaires with 32 items were distributed to all resident doctors of general medicine, internal medicine, gynecology and obstetrics, orthopedics, and occupational medicine in Aachen (n = 360) in early spring 2022.

RESULTS

The response rate was 29.2% and n = 105 participants were included in the analysis. During their consultation hours, 85.7% of the doctors conducted nutrition counseling (NC). While doctors estimated that 39.5% of their patients need NC, they counseled only 28.1%. General practitioners spent an average of 13 min on NC; all other specialties spent 9.5 min. Most participants felt well informed about healthy nutrition (95.2%). Nutrition was of high personal interest to 57.7% of the participants, and 47.6% considered it important for their work as a doctor. Barriers preventing better NC included the lack of nutrition education during medical studies (89.5%) and specialist training (79.6%), and the lack of time (75.2%). Most participants were willing to conduct more NC if they were paid better and had more time for NC during their working hours.

DISCUSSION

Doctors consider NC a relevant part of their work, despite many barriers. To make better use of NC as a measure for treating and preventing common diseases, improvements like better nutrition education for doctors, better funding, and more time for NC are required.

Kommunal verankerte Versorgungsstrukturen zur Förderung der Ernährungsgesundheit in den ersten 1000 Tagen – eine Analyse des aktuellen Status quo

Ziel

Die Ernährung in den ersten 1000 Tagen stellt einen relevanten Einflussfaktor für eine gesunde (Gewichts)entwicklung von Kindern dar. Verhältnispräventive, kommunalbasierte Ansätze scheinen am Erfolg versprechendsten in der Bekämpfung von (kindlichem) Übergewicht bzw. nicht übertragbaren Erkrankungen zu sein. Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, Strategien zum Gelingen der Ernährungsgesundheit in den ersten 1000 Tagen herauszuarbeiten.

Methodik

Auf Basis einer internetbasierten Recherche möglicher kommunalbasierter Praxisprojekte wurden standardisierte, leitfadengestützte Interviews mit Expertinnen und Experten aus Wissenschaft und Praxis durchgeführt. Der Fokus lag auf der allgemeinen Einschätzung der Versorgungslage bzw. einem möglichen Handlungs- und Versorgungsbedarf sowie konkreten Handlungsempfehlungen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Schwangeren bzw. jungen Familien in belasteten Lebenslagen. 14 von 40 im Schneeballverfahren ausgewählten Personen nahmen teil.

Ergebnisse

Alle Teilnehmenden schätzen die aktuelle primärpräventive Versorgung als nicht ausreichend ein. Als kritisch wurden von ihnen v. a. die fehlenden strukturellen und politischen Rahmenbedingen, insbesondere die häufig bestehenden zeitlich begrenzten Programme, gesehen. Dadurch seien Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Ernährungsgesundheit oder vergleichbare Interventionen nicht erfolgreich zu etablieren. Gefordert wurde daher eine deutlichere Unterstützung durch politische und andere relevante Stakeholder, z. B. Krankenversicherungen und Vernetzung mit bzw. Einbettung dieses Themenfeldes in den öffentlichen Gesundheitsdienst.

Schlussfolgerung

Unsere Ergebnisse bestätigen aus Sicht von Expertinnen und Experten, dass die Förderung der Ernährungsgesundheit in den ersten 1000 Tagen sinnvoll und wichtig ist. Allerdings ist ein deutlicher Optimierungsbedarf hinsichtlich der Versorgungsstrukturen und der konkreten nachhaltigen Umsetzung von primärpräventiven Angeboten sowie niederschwelligen Zugängen für belastete Schwangere und Familien erkennbar.

Responsibility of Individuals and Stakeholders for Obesity and a Healthy Diet: Results From a German Survey

INTRODUCTION

Overweight and obesity are thought to be mainly caused by an energy-rich diet and a sedentary lifestyle. The opinions of those with and without obesity about an individual´s and stakeholder´s responsibility for overweight and obesity as well as a healthy diet is rather unclear. Therefore, a survey was conducted to assess the thoughts of persons with and without obesity about the responsibilities for a high body weight and healthy diet.

METHODS

This telephone-based survey was conducted in Germany. Landline and mobile phone users older than 17 years were quota sampled to represent the German population (n=1,003). Additionally, 354 adults with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2 were included in the survey population. Questions on weight management, eating and drinking and anthropometry were asked. Furthermore, the opinions of participants on the responsibility of individuals and stakeholders for obesity and a healthy diet were collected. Data was statistically weighted by age, gender, education, domicile, and BMI.

RESULTS

Data of 1,357 persons (51.1% female, age: 50.5 ± 18.5 years, 15.9% with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) were analyzed. Participants responded that the general causes of a high body weight were low physical activity (82.7%) and excessive caloric intake (80.5%) followed by a lack of will power (72.1%). Almost 90% of the survey population reported that each individual is responsible for his/her own healthy diet. More than 85% of the survey population agreed that a healthy diet in kindergarten and nutrition education at schools should be the preferred approaches when politics take care of a person´s healthy diet. Sub-analyses revealed that BMI, sex, age, and education are potential confounders.

CONCLUSION

This German survey showed that the majority of participants indicated that the responsibility for a healthy diet lies with the individual and high body weight is caused by self-controlled attitudes. These results suggest that the survey population underestimates societal and environmental factors that contribute to the development of obesity, which could lead to attitudes that facilitate weight-related stigmatization. Furthermore, survey participants indicated that they would support policy-driven measures that promote a healthy diet.

What should governments be doing to prevent diabetes throughout the life course?

Health systems and governments are increasingly required to implement measures that target at-risk populations to prevent noncommunicable diseases. In this review we lay out what governments should be doing to prevent diabetes throughout the life course. The following four target groups were used to structure the specific recommendations: (1) pregnant women and young families, (2) children and adolescents, (3) working age population, and (4) the elderly. The evidence to date supports the effectiveness of some known government policy measures, such as sugar taxes and regulatory measures in the (pre-)school setting for children and adolescents. Many of these appear to be more effective if they are part of a bundle of strategies and if they are supplemented by communication strategies. Although there is a current focus on strategies that target the individual, governments can make use of evidence-based population-level prevention strategies. More research and continuous evaluation of the overall and subgroup-specific effectiveness of policy strategies using high-quality longitudinal studies are needed.

Current Guidelines for Obesity Prevention in Childhood and Adolescence

OBJECTIVE

Current guidelines for prevention of obesity in childhood and adolescence are discussed.

METHODS

A literature search was performed in Medline via PubMed, and appropriate studies were analyzed.

RESULTS

Programs to prevent childhood obesity have so far remained mainly school-based and effects have been limited. Analyses by age group show that prevention programs have the best results in younger children (<12 years). Evidence-based recommendations for pre-school- and early school-aged children indicate the need for interventions that address parents and teachers alike. During adolescence, school-based interventions proved most effective when adolescents were addressed directly. To date, obesity prevention programs have mainly focused on behavior-oriented prevention. Recommendations for community- or environment-based prevention have been suggested by the German Alliance of Noncommunicable Diseases and include a minimum of 1 h of physical activity at school, promotion of healthy food choices by taxing unhealthy foods, mandatory standards for meals at kindergartens and schools as well as a ban on unhealthy food advertisement aimed at children.

CONCLUSION

Behavior-oriented prevention programs showed only limited long-term effects. Certain groups at risk for the development of obesity are not reached effectively by current programs. Although universally valid conclusions cannot be drawn given the heterogeneity of available studies, clearly combining behavior-based programs with community-based prevention to counteract an 'obesogenic environment' is crucial for sustainable success of future obesity prevention programs.

[Promoting a balanced diet and physical activity among children : Conditions for the successful implementation and maintenance of multi-level interventions and policies: Results of two qualitative case studies]

BACKGROUND

To date, conditions for successfully implementing and maintaining multi-level interventions and policies for the promotion of a balanced diet and physical activity are not well understood from the perspective of stakeholders.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this article is to examine which factors are regarded as facilitating or impeding introduction, implementation and maintenance of multi-level interventions and policies from the standpoint of stakeholders.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Semi-structured face-to-face interviews with stakeholders of one multi-level intervention (Identification and prevention of Dietary- and lifestyle-induced health EFfects In Children and infantS [IDEFICS] for the prevention of childhood obesity, n = 4) and one policy (Federal state offices coordinating networks for the provision of healthy food options in schools, n = 3) were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS

In both cases, the use of existing structures facilitated introduction, implementation and maintenance. Additionally, training of staff for implementation according to standardised protocols or concepts and taking structures and work conditions of settings into account during implementation were considered essential. In both cases, conflicting interests in interdisciplinary stakeholder teams regarding intervention content and implementation were identified as a barrier. A lack of political support and insecure long-term funding only played a role in regard to the implementation and maintenance of policies. On the other hand, target groups of the multi-level intervention were not sufficiently involved in the development of intervention materials which resulted in a lack of tailoring and acceptance in the target groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The results provide important insights into the long-term implementation of multi-level interventions and policies in different settings.