The Brief
(The complete brief is available as a PDF.)
We are getting fatter. Statistics show that in Britain the prevalence of obesity has trebled since the 1980s. 22% of men and 23.5% of women are now obese and well over half of all adults are either overweight or obese—almost 24 million adults.
Obesity costs money and lives. Overweight and obesity increase the risk of a wide range of diseases and illnesses, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Obesity reduces life expectancy on average by 9 years and is responsible for 9,000 premature deaths in the UK each year.
In Britain well over half of all adults are either overweight or obese.
Whilst political commentators call for taxes on fatty foods and insurance companies raise premiums for overweight clients, the media decry the 'Nanny State' in its attempts to legislate where we can and cannot smoke, and what we can and cannot eat. The Food Standards Agency proposes a 'healthy indicator' coding system for food packaging, while corporations such as McDonalds and Cadburys, running scared of litigation over poor health, distribute free pedometers and coupons for exercise equipment. Still portion sizes continue to rise and ‘Fat acceptance’ societies begin to appear.
Obesity is high on the agenda of many Western countries. However, as the British Secretary of State for Health, John Reid MP, states:
"We recognize that these issues are not just a matter for Government—they involve individuals and the choices they make, as well as the food and leisure industry."
The role of design in the area of health has traditionally been about designing equipment for treatment, and environments for recuperation.
We believe that design can provide a new perspective on current social and economic problems and contribute to the issue of prevention. Designers have the skills to define problems as well as to solve them and insight into the ways that people live their lives is at the heart of everything we do.
We believe that design can provide a new perspective and contribute to the issue of prevention.
Overweight and obesity occur when a person gains excess weight to a point that it starts to endanger their health. Without periods of increased calories intake and/or decreased activity, individuals will not gain weight, no matter what their genetic makeup.
Changes in lifestyle over the last to decades—observed in many countries—are likely to have contributed to trends in obesity. Calorie intakes may have increased—portion sizes have grown and snacking, sugary drinks and eating out are more common—and people, on average, are less active - with sedentary jobs, walking less, watching more TV and less likely to play sport.
The task lies not in increasing support to our current curative health services but redirecting funds into new services aimed at creating healthy lifestyles.
The Challenge
Obesity is not an easy problem to tackle. The best long-term approach is prevention, particularly in childhood. Critical to this is improving diet—including intakes of fat and added sugars—and increasing physical activity levels. Action needs to take a lifecourse approach—starting from birth. Even a modest weight loss can significantly improve the health of people who are already overweight or obese.
Action needs to take a lifecourse approach—starting from birth.
Prevention, however, requires a massive culture shift, and significant changes in behavior and lifestyle. These changes cannot be delivered by traditional health services, nor will they take place in traditional institutions of care—hospitals, doctors’ surgeries or care centers. The main influences may not come from health professionals such as doctors and nurses, or from government health messages, but from a wide range of sources—friends, family, colleagues, the media, food and leisure industries and people’s immediate environments. What kinds of foods are available in the local corner shop may have more impact on an individual’s health and wellbeing than any number of pro-health advertising campaigns. In this new wellbeing paradigm, what role does the traditional health service play?
This brief is not simply about encouraging people to count calories and take out a gym membership, but ensuring that healthy eating and physical activity becomes a natural and accessible part of living their lives.
The complete brief is available as a PDF.