Bridging interdisciplinary, intersectional and intersectoral approaches to tackle overweight and obesity in Iberia-Latin American cities

TUMAS, NATALIA; BENACH, JOAN

Lisboa

Congreso; MCAA Annual Conference and General Assembly; 2022

Almost 40% of the worldwide population has excess weight (overweight/obesity), and the increasing trends are leading to shorten life expectancy. Innovative actions to mitigate overweight/obesity are urgently needed: no country has so far succeeded in reducing its growth. Overweight/obesity are related to several axes of social inequality (such as socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, age, place), and are more frequent in more unequal societies and in areas with higher level of urbanization. In order to overcome one of the major health failures of our time, innovative and more comprehensive approaches to tackle the root causes of the overweight/obesity epidemic appear as a must. In this regarding, the following approaches are increasingly recognized as promising avenues: i) interdisciplinary: due to the multicausal cross-disciplinary nature of overweight/obesity, the involvement of perspectives from diverse fields is key to achieving a more comprehensive understanding; ii) intersectional: in view of the involved complex interplay among multiple dimensions of inequality in overweight/obesity and the need for its integration in political analysis; iii) intersectoral: given that there are many factors across different sectors that contribute to social and gender inequalities in overweight/obesity, strengthening the research-policy linkage and strategic dialogue among cross-sectoral stakeholders is crucial. However, evidence on these integrative approaches is very scarce, and even more so in Iberia-Latin America. The highly urbanised Iberia-Latin American region has strong historical, political, economic and cultural (including food culture traditions) bonds. However, this region also presents considerable heterogeneity in the degree of social and gender inequalities, urbanization and in the prevalence of overweight/obesity. Thus, this transnational scenario holds great potential for the analysis of the urban social and gender inequalities in overweight/obesity. The overall objective of this Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral project is to develop an analytical model to assess the determinants of social and gender inequalities in overweight/obesity in Iberia-Latin American cities during a recent period (2006-2020), and to inform urban policies by integrating interdisciplinary, intersectional and intersectoral approaches. The self-contained and interlinked specific objectives are: i) To identify the determinants of social and gender inequalities in overweight/obesity, ii) To analyze selected public policies intended to address social and gender inequalities in overweight/obesity; iii) To develop recommendations for polices and interventions to address social and gender inequalities in overweight/obesity. A mixed methods study design is applied, with a cross-sectional multi-city study followed by a public policy analysis and the development of recommendations for polices and interventions to address social and gender inequalities in overweight/obesity. A gender perspective is adopted throughout all the action. The results obtained so far in Latin America suggest a lower prevalence of overweight/obesity associated with higher city women’s empowerment in women and with higher city income inequality in men. Furthermore, these associations are modified by individual education and -to a lesser extent- by sub-city living conditions. Overall, this project will provide insights for reframing overweight/obesity as a systemic problem.