Public attitudes towards obesity policies on the island of Ireland; exploring the relationship with biopsychosocial characteristics

Background: Public attitudes towards policies targeting obesity can influence their implementation. Gaining a better understanding of the levels of public agreement with different policies and their determinants can contribute to the development of effective approaches that can halt the rise of obesity. This study aimed to: (1) group a number of different regulatory approaches to preventing obesity into coherent categories; and (2) explore how anthropometrics (bio), health behaviours and obesity-related beliefs and experiences (psycho) and social determinants (social) may influence agreement with different obesity-related policies on the island of Ireland. Methods: A cross-sectional telephone survey collected data from a randomly selected quota sample of 1000 adults who live in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Participants reported their level of agreement with 39 policies considered to impact upon obesity risk. They also provided information on biopsychosocial factors including demographics, anthropometrics, diet and physical activity behaviours, obesity-related beliefs and experiences of weight discrimination. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to organise the policies into coherent groups. Multiple linear regression examined the presence of a relationship between attitudes towards a class of policies and other collected variables. Results: Five policy scales including thirty-three policies were obtained: (1) Enabling healthier environments and communities, (2) 'Hard' polices, (3) Resources, (4) Promotion and information on health and food and (5) Advertising restrictions on unhealthy food. Higher levels of agreement with all policy categories was associated with: older age; living comfortably on current income; being physically active; and endorsing health risks of obesity. Women reported greater agreement with Enabling healthier environments, 'Hard' polices and more Resources, compared with men. Respondents who viewed maintaining a healthy weight as costly were less likely to agree with Resources, Promotion and information, and Advertising restrictions. Participants with personal experience of weight discrimination were less likely to agree with 'Hard' policies. Conclusion: This study reveals a considerable variation in public attitudes towards obesity policies which varied by individual biopsychosocial characteristics. Present findings have important implications for policy makers tasked with designing and implementing acceptable approaches to prevent obesity at a population level.