title: Mobilisation of public support for policy actions to prevent obesity.
abstract: Public mobilisation is needed to enact obesity-prevention policies and to mitigate reaction against their implementation. However, approaches in public health focus mainly on dialogue between public health professionals and political leaders. Strategies to increase popular demand for obesity-prevention policies include refinement and streamlining of public information, identification of effective obesity frames for each population, strengthening of media advocacy, building of citizen protest and engagement, and development of a receptive political environment with change agents embedded across organisations and sectors. Long-term support and investment in collaboration between diverse stakeholders to create shared value is also important. Each actor in an expanded coalition for obesity prevention can make specific contributions to engaging, mobilising, and coalescing the public. The shift from a top-down to a combined and integrated bottom-up and top-down approach would need an overhaul of current strategies and reprioritisation of resources.
authors.affiliation: City University of New York, School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA; University of Nebraska Medical Centre, College of Public Health, Omaha, NE, USA. Electronic address: terry.huang@sph.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: Terry T-K
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Policy and Management and Department of Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cawley
authors.affiliation: ChangeLab Solutions, Oakland, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Marice
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashe
authors.affiliation: City University of New York, School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA; University of Nebraska Medical Centre, College of Public Health, Omaha, NE, USA.
authors.forename: Sergio A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska Medical Centre, College of Public Health, Omaha, NE, USA.
authors.forename: Leah M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Frerichs
authors.affiliation: ChangeLab Solutions, Oakland, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Lindsey
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zwicker
authors.affiliation: National Public Health Institute, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.affiliation: Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.affiliation: Center on Social Dynamics and Policy, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC, USA.
authors.forename: Ross A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hammond
authors.affiliation: MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Estelle V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.affiliation: Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Shiriki K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kumanyika
mesh_terms: D019058:Community Networks; D003256:Community Participation; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008119:Lobbying; D008402:Mass Media; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011634:Public Health; D011639:Public Opinion