Socio-Ecological Model--Looking Beyond the Individual

What are ALL the Factors That Influence Your Weight? Is It JUST You?

The World We Live In Influences Us.

The socio-ecological model recognizes the interwoven relationship that exists between the individual and their environment.
While individuals are responsible for instituting and maintaining the lifestyle changes necessary to reduce risk and improve health, individual behavior is determined to a large extent by social environment, e.g. community norms and values, regulations, and policies.
Barriers to healthy behaviors are shared among the community as a whole. As these barriers are lowered or removed, behavior change becomes more achievable and sustainable. It becomes easier to "push the ball up the hill."
The most effective approach leading to healthy behaviors is a combination of the efforts at all levels--individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy.

Taken from Jane Moore, Ph.D., RD Manager of Oregon Department of Human Services-Health Services, http://www.dhs.state.or.us/publichealth/hpcdp/about.cfm#why Used with permission.

Many factors contribute to chronic diseases. Some of these factors are modifiable behaviors; in other words, they reflect individual health behaviors. Half of all deaths Oregon can be attributed to unhealthy lifestyle or modifiable behaviors like tobacco use, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, and not getting preventive screenings like mammograms or blood cholesterol tests. Fig.1: Behavior and Disease.

Many of these health behaviors are risks for several chronic diseases (see Figure 1).

By altering lifestyle behaviors, the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes for Oregonians can be reduced. Communities, schools, worksites and healthcare sites can support and promote healthy behaviors through policies and environmental factors such as smoke-free workplaces, healthy cafeteria meals, sidewalks & bike paths, incentives for bicycle and pedestrian commuters, worksite wellness programs, insurance coverage for preventive services such as mammography and tobacco cessation.

Healthy Active Oregon 2003

What Can You Do?

Small Steps Can Make A Big Difference

Individuals

Eat reasonable food and beverage portion sizes at home and when eating out.
Eat 5 to 9 fruits and vegetables each day, or more! Visit the new www.FruitsandVeggiesMatter.gov Web site to get tools and information to help you eat more fruits and vegetables each day! Fruits and Veggies Help You Manage Weight.pdf
Walk or bicycle more often -- to work or school, for errands, to visit friends, just for the fun of it.
Be a better driver – obey the speed limit, stop for pedestrians crossing the street, watch out for bicyclists.

Parents

Serve as good role models by practicing healthy eating habits and by being physical active every day.
Make sure tasty, attractive fruits and vegetables are available for meals and snacks at home and when eating out.
Set limits on television viewing.
Limit access to sugar-sweetened drinks.
Work with your children’s schools to develop policies regarding: vending machines, use of foods as rewards in classrooms, adequate lunch and recess time, daily PE, safe walking and bicycling routes to school.
Organize Walk to School Day events in your children’s schools.
Breastfeed your infant for at least one year.

Employers

Offer walk/bike/transit incentives like bicycle parking and transit passes.
Provide exercise and changing facilities at work.
Post signs near elevators encouraging people to take the stairs.
Make the stairway a safe and inviting place.
Support community-wide events that promote physical activity.
Set standards for foods served at cafeterias, in vending machines, and at meetings.
Use price incentives in the cafeteria and in vending machines to increase consumption of healthy foods.
Promote 5 A Day at your worksite.
Add more water drinking fountains.
Create a worksite environment supportive of breastfeeding.

Community Member

Participate in neighborhood, community, and transportation planning groups.
Support funding for sidewalks, bicycle paths, parks, recreation centers, and swimming pools.
Declare and organize an annual National “No-TV” Week.
Join or start a walking or bicycling group in your neighborhood.
Organize a Farmers’ Market in your neighborhood or community.
Support policies to promote healthy eating such as disclosing the calorie content of restaurant food and requiring calorie labeling on menus and menu boards at chain restaurants.
Join advocacy groups promoting community design supportive of safe and accessible walking and bicycling.
Let your community leaders and elected officials know that you support healthy, active communities.

Architects, Community and Transportation Planners

Design buildings where stairs are visible, accessible and safe.
Adjacent to buildings, provide sidewalks, convenient bicycle parking and safe connectivity to public transit.
Consider public transit, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and bicycle paths for walking and bicycling to be as essential as streets and roads for vehicles.
Design frequent and safe street crossings.
Design neighborhoods and communities where children and adults can easily and safely travel between home, work, school, retail establishments, parks and recreation facilities on foot and bicycle.

Community Leaders and Policy Makers

Consider health consequences along with financial impact when developing school policies such as contracts with soft-drink companies, offering daily PE, promoting walking and bicycling to school, or district support for school meal programs.
Prioritize funding for increasing and improving pedestrian and bicycle facilities in communities.
Consider public health impacts in land-use planning decisions such as siting of schools, development of mixed-use neighborhoods, and location of farms producing fruits and vegetables near urban areas.
Consider zoning regulations that allow more Farmers’ Markets in neighborhoods.
Assure access to full-service grocery stores in all neighborhoods and limit density of fast food restaurants.
Prioritize funding for effective public health interventions to increase physical activity, promote healthy eating, and reduce obesity and chronic diseases.

“Many people believe that overweight and obesity is a personal responsibility. To some

degree they are right, but it is also a community responsibility. When there are no safe,

accessible places for children to play or adults to walk, jog, or ride a bike, that is a

community responsibility. When school lunchrooms and office cafeterias do not provide

healthy and appealing food choices, that is a community responsibility. When new or

expectant mothers are not educated about the benefits of breastfeeds, that is a community

responsibility. When we do not require daily physical education in our schools, that is

also a community responsibility. There is much that we can and should do together.” –

David Satcher, The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease

Overweight and Obesity,” 2001.

What Can You Do? Small Steps Can Make A Big Difference

Jane Moore, RD, PhD, DHS-HS Office of Health Promotion & Chronic Disease Prevention

www.walkinginfo.org The Pedestrian and Bicycle information Center (CDC) serves anyone interested in pedestrian and bicycle issues through its Web site. This informative site encourages citizens to get involved in city planning to promote safer, more walkable cities. Included are a "community toolbox," a set of techniques for project development and community participation, and a walkability checklist to help determine a community's walking potential. The site also has information on the national "Walk to School Day" planned for October 6, 2004 whose goal is to encourage parents and kits to get moving throughout the year.

http://www.activelivingbydesign.org/ Active Living by Design is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a part of the UNC School of Public Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This program establishes innovative approaches to increase physical activity, healthful eating, through community design, public policies and communications strategies. Active Living Essentials

Obesity Prevention and Control Strategies

Healthy Eating by Design PDF

Walk around Small Baby Steps Lead to Success! for additional ideas.