How to talk about childhood obesity: Impact on Urban Health release framing toolkit

Impact on Urban Health have released a framing toolkit to address childhood obesity. How we talk about child health and obesity matters. Where we live, and what we earn, shapes the options available to us to be healthy. But when people think about childhood obesity, it’s seen solely as an issue of lack of willpower and parental failure. An inevitable feature of modern life and the only solutions that people put forward are for there to be better education about food. What’s missing in all this? Context.

This toolkit has been published to build support for the wider changes needed that will enable all children to thrive and be healthy.

Six recommendations for improving children’s health

1. Lead with improving children’s health.
2. Remind people that we should meet all children’s needs – no mater where they live.
3. Use a rivers metaphor to explain how our surroundings shape our opportunities to be healthy.
4. Use a stage metaphor to explain the impact of advertising on children’s taste.
5. Place stories in context to show how our surroundings affect us all.
6. Show how change is not just necessary but possible to build support for solutions.

Find the full toolkit here.

Read more about Impact on Urban Health’s research methodology and findings here.