Impact of Social Marketing in the Prevention of Childhood Obesity

doi:10.3945/an.112.001958

Advances in Nutrition

Volume 3, Issue 4, July 2012, Pages 611S-615S

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Abstract

Obesity, mainly childhood obesity, is a worldwide concern. Childhood obesity continues to adulthood, and it is associated with multiple noncommunicable diseases. One important aspect in the fight against obesity is prevention, the earlier, the better. Social marketing is a novel concept being increasingly used as an approach to address social problems and more and more included in the community-based interventions aiming to change unhealthy behaviors. Although there is limited evidence of its effectiveness, it seems that when conscientiously applied, social marketing principles may be useful to change behaviors and thus better health outcomes.

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Published in a supplement to Advances in Nutrition. Presented at the conference “2nd Forum on Child Obesity Interventions” held in Mexico City, Mexico, August 22–24, 2011. The conference was organized and cosponsored by Fundación Mexicana para la Salud A.C. (FUNSALUD). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of FUNSALUD. The supplement coordinator for this supplement was Frania Pfeffer, FUNSALUD. Supplement Coordinator disclosures: Frania Pfeffer is employed by FUNSALUD, which received a research donation from Coca Cola, PEPSICO, and Peña Fiel, 3 major beverage companies in Mexico, to support the program of childhood obesity research and communication. The supplement is the responsibility of the Guest Editor to whom the Editor of Advances in Nutrition has delegated supervision of both technical conformity to the published regulations of Advances in Nutrition and general oversight of the scientific merit of each article. The Guest Editor for this supplement was Nanette Stroebele, University of Colorado, Denver. Guest Editor disclosure: Nanette Stroebele had no conflicts to disclose. Publication costs for this supplement were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This publication must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and are not attributable to the sponsors or the publisher, Editor, or Editorial Board of Advances in Nutrition.

Supported by the Directorate General for Health and Consumers (European Commission, Agreement 2007 327).

Author disclosures: L. Gracia-Marco, L. A. Moreno, and G. Vicente-Rodríguez, no conflicts of interest.