Review The Videos For This Week's Content Activity ✓ Solved
For this activity, review the videos in this week's content
For this activity, review the videos in this week's content folder and the participant guide for creating causal loops. Choose a public health topic and, using the guide, create a causal loop diagram showing a system of interrelated factors for that topic. Write a narrative explaining the diagram and discuss both potential intended and unintended outcomes of the loop.
Paper For Above Instructions
Title: A Causal Loop Diagram for Childhood Obesity in Urban Communities
This paper presents a causal loop diagram (CLD) for childhood obesity in urban communities, explains the relationships and feedback loops, and discusses intended and unintended outcomes that may follow from interventions. The CLD synthesizes individual behaviors, environmental drivers, policy levers, and social influences to show how interacting factors can reinforce or balance population-level trends in childhood obesity.
Diagram Overview
The CLD includes the following primary variables: Caloric Intake from Processed Foods, Physical Activity, Screen Time, Body Mass Index (BMI) in Children, Food Marketing Exposure, Availability of Healthy Foods, Built Environment (walkability/safe play spaces), Parental Time Constraints, Stigma and Self-Efficacy, and Policy Interventions (e.g., soda taxes, school nutrition standards). Two dominant feedback structures appear: a reinforcing loop that promotes weight gain (R1) and a balancing loop that can reduce obesity when effective interventions are applied (B1).
Feedback Loops and Mechanisms
Reinforcing loop R1: Food Marketing Exposure increases Caloric Intake from processed foods (advertising increases preference and consumption), which raises Child BMI. Higher BMI often reduces physical activity due to lower fitness, mobility limitations, and reduced self-efficacy, and lower activity further increases BMI—a reinforcing cycle that accelerates weight gain (Swinburn et al., 2011; Hastings et al., 2006).
Balancing loop B1: Improvements in the Built Environment (safer parks, active transport infrastructure) and greater Availability of Healthy Foods can increase Physical Activity and decrease Caloric Intake from processed foods, respectively. These changes counteract the reinforcing loop and can stabilize or reduce average BMI over time if sustained and equitably implemented (Sallis et al., 2012; WHO, 2016).
Narrative Explanation
The CLD shows how individual behavior is embedded in social, commercial, and built environments. Screen Time acts as both a direct influence on physical activity (substituting sedentary behavior for active play) and an exposure pathway for food marketing, which raises caloric intake. Parental time constraints and neighborhood safety modify whether children access healthy foods and safe play; communities with low access to healthy options experience higher processed-food consumption (Swinburn et al., 2011; Sallis et al., 2012). Policy levers such as school nutrition standards, taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, and restrictions on advertising to children can weaken the reinforcing loop by reducing marketing exposure and processed-food consumption (Brownell & Frieden, 2009; WHO, 2016).
Intended Outcomes of Interventions
Targeted interventions aim to reduce caloric intake and increase physical activity, thereby lowering average BMI in the population. For example, a soda tax can reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and provide revenue to fund community recreation or healthy food subsidies, creating reinforcing supports for healthier patterns (Brownell et al., 2009). Building safe parks and improving active transport can sustainably increase activity levels and create social norms around movement (Sallis et al., 2012).
Potential Unintended Outcomes
However, interventions can have unintended consequences. Policies that focus narrowly on weight (e.g., public BMI reporting or stigmatizing messaging) may increase stigma and reduce self-efficacy, paradoxically lowering activity and worsening outcomes among affected children (Puhl & Heuer, 2010). A soda tax might lead to substitution toward other high-calorie foods if broader dietary contexts are not addressed (Elder et al., 2010). Market responses to regulation (e.g., reformulation with artificial sweeteners) may shift consumption patterns in ways that have uncertain long-term health effects (Swinburn et al., 2011). Finally, interventions not equitably applied can widen disparities: improvements in built environment or pricing policies may be adopted faster in affluent areas, leaving vulnerable communities behind (Ng et al., 2014; WHO, 2016).
Policy and Research Implications
System mapping highlights the need for multi-component strategies that combine marketing restrictions, fiscal policies, urban planning, school-based programs, and community engagement. Monitoring for unintended outcomes (stigma, substitution, inequitable effects) is essential and can be built into policy evaluation designs (Sterman, 2000; Hall et al., 2011). Systems thinking suggests prioritizing interventions that change structural drivers (availability, marketing, built environment) rather than solely focusing on individual behavior change.
Conclusion
The causal loop diagram clarifies how reinforcing dynamics can entrench childhood obesity in urban settings and how balancing interventions can mitigate these trends. Effective public health action should address commercial drivers, improve built environments and food access, and anticipate unintended outcomes through equity-focused design and continuous evaluation. Systems-informed policies are more likely to produce sustained, population-level reductions in childhood obesity than single-focus interventions.
References
- Sterman, J. D. (2000). Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
- World Health Organization. (2016). Report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. WHO.
- Swinburn, B. A., Sacks, G., Hall, K. D., McPherson, K., Finegood, D. T., Moodie, M. L., & Gortmaker, S. L. (2011). The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments. The Lancet, 378(9793), 804–814.
- Sallis, J. F., Floyd, M. F., Rodríguez, D. A., & Saelens, B. E. (2012). Role of built environments in physical activity, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Circulation, 125(5), 729–737.
- Brownell, K. D., & Frieden, T. R. (2009). Ounces of prevention — the public policy case for taxes on sugared beverages. New England Journal of Medicine, 360(18), 1805–1808.
- Hastings, G., Stead, M., McDermott, L., Forsyth, A., MacKintosh, A. M., Rayner, M., … Angus, K. (2006). Review of research on the effects of food promotion to children. University of Strathclyde.
- Puhl, R. M., & Heuer, C. A. (2010). Obesity stigma: important considerations for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 100(6), 1019–1028.
- Hall, K. D., Sacks, G., Chandramohan, D., Chow, C. C., Wang, Y. C., Gortmaker, S. L., & Swinburn, B. A. (2011). Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight. The Lancet, 378(9793), 826–837.
- Ng, M., Fleming, T., Robinson, M., Thomson, B., Graetz, N., Margono, C., … Murray, C. J. L. (2014). Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–2013: a systematic analysis. The Lancet, 384(9945), 766–781.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020). Childhood Obesity Facts. CDC.