‘No quick fix' for obesity
Thursday 5 June 2008
'We are in effect turning the super tanker around,' he said. 'We shouldn't hold out hope to policy-makers and others that we have the quick fix, because we're really in the very early days - we're in for the long haul.'
Mike Kelly, NICE
The aspiration and political will to tackle obesity are real, but there is no quick fix to the problem, Director of NICE's Public Health Excellence Centre, Mike Kelly, told delegates in Thursday morning's plenary. The 'folk memory' that there were quick fixes for 19th century public health problems like cholera is fixed in the public consciousness, he said, and could often lead to an expectation that these could be found for contemporary problems.
It was now nearly two years since NICE published its obesity guidance, he said. This brought together the public health and clinical perspectives in a way that had not been done before, and included public health recommendations for local government, schools and early years settings, workplaces, the NHS, the general public and parents, the latter in particular attracting some ‘nanny state' accusations. 'We created quite a media splash when it came out,' he said. 'But not always quite the messages we wanted.' The guidance also set out the case that the obesity crisis is 'something that we all own,' he said. 'You can get the enduring impression that it's always someone else's problem, which makes it difficult to get to grips with.'
The obesity problem has worsened since the guidance's publication, he told the conference, with messages and recommendations still not penetrating to schools and local authorities. There is also still a sense that the NHS has failed to take ownership of the issue, outside of specialists in the field. 'But undoubtedly we've created an awareness of the problem,' he said. 'There are few people that aren't aware now.'
There remains an evidence gap, however. 'What works on the front line is still a fundamental question to which we don't have an answer.' There is also an aspiration gap about what we want to achieve, with the demand for a quick fix getting in the way of the more incremental solutions needed. 'We are in effect turning the super tanker around,' he said. 'We shouldn't hold out hope to policy-makers and others that we have the quick fix, because we're really in the very early days - we're in for the long haul.'
Watch Mike Kelly's speech as part of the plenary session: Tackling Obesity