New Director of Public Health report sets out how we must work together differently to prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes

"It’s easy to think that what we eat and how we move is entirely personal choice - however we are constantly being influenced by what’s around us".  

That’s the message from Claire Beynon, Executive Director of Public Health for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, as she launches her annual report setting out how - through a collaborative whole system approach - we can create change to help prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.  

Entitled 'What Surrounds Us, Shapes Us', the report highlights that these conditions are closely linked and both largely preventable.

We are constantly influenced by the world around us. The places we spend time in - such as schools, workplaces, and sports clubs - shape our choices. The spaces near where we live, including neighbourhoods, high streets, parks, playgrounds, and transport routes, also play a role. In addition, the people we know, along with policies, laws, and cultural norms, affect how we live.

Because so many factors influence our daily lives, preventing obesity and type 2 diabetes is a complex challenge.

The report calls for a shift from traditional approaches which have focused on changing individual behaviours to an approach that recognises and focuses change on the broader influences that affect how we live including the food we eat and how we move.    

In recent generations, the way we live has changed.  For example, there has been a rapid increase in fast food outlets, school breaktimes are shorter with less time for play, fewer children walk to school, we spend more time sitting at work, our road networks have been designed for cars and less children play outside. This is affecting our health and contributing to the number of people living with obesity and type 2 diabetes in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. There are also unfair differences across our communities, with more adults for example living with obesity in our most disadvantaged areas. 

The report sets out three calls to action: 

Make prevention the focus: Prioritise prevention and refocus spend towards earliest stage prevention, putting prevention at the centre of all our decision making and stopping the influences before they occur.

Create supportive spaces and places: Design the places and spaces where we live and spend our time so that they support and enable movement and access to healthy food.

Put communities at the heart: Develop solutions together that reflect communities’ unique needs, priorities and ideas, co-ordinate our collective efforts towards our shared goals.

Claire Beynon said: "We need to stop thinking of obesity and type 2 diabetes as problems that can be solved by individuals alone. We are shaped by the world around us - our streets, schools, workplaces, and cultural norms. 

"If we design and build our places and spaces so that they enable movement and access to healthy food we can prevent these conditions occurring in the first place. We must act to stop the influences that lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes."

Progress is already underway through the 'Good Food and Movement Framework (2024-2030)'.  Through the whole system approach ‘Good Food and Movement’ brings together a wide range of partners and stakeholders to progress action against four key themes; Healthy Environment, Healthy Settings, Healthy People, and Leadership and Enabling Change focusing the collaborative approach on addressing the broader influences around us.  

Claire added: "We are already making some great progress but need to go further and act faster if we are to reduce the number of people living with and experiencing the consequences of these health conditions. 

"Change is possible. Together, we can all play a part in designing good food and movement into life for everyone."

For the full report and more information, go here or contact GoodFood.Movement@wales.nhs.uk. 