The blind spot in the drive for childhood obesity prevention: Bringing eating disorders prevention into focus as a public health priority

S. Bryn Austin

American Journal of Public Health, 2011, vol. 101, issue 6, e1-e4

Abstract: Public health attention to childhood obesity has increased in tandem with the growing epidemic, but despite this intense focus, successes in prevention have lagged far behind. There is a blind spot in our drive for childhood obesity prevention that prevents us from generating sufficiently broad solutions. Eating disorders and the constellation of perilous weight-control behaviors are in that blind spot. Evidence is mounting that obesity and eating disorders are linked in myriad ways, but entrenched myths about eating disorders undermine our abilitytosee the full range of leverage points to target in obesity preventive intervention studies. Our efforts to prevent childhood obesity can no longer afford to ignore eating disorders and the assemblage of related behaviors that persist unabated.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300182

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2011.300182_7

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300182

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().