10.E. Workshop: Childhood obesity: how to tackle this wicked problem?

Abstract

Abstract The City of Amsterdam was awarded the City European Health Award 2019 with its Amsterdam Healthy Weight Approach (AHWA). The European Union stated that the AHWA contributes to a healthier environment for children in Amsterdam to grow up in. In this workshop we will share our insights and experiences with the AHWA as a Whole Systems Approach (WSA), supported by a multidisciplinary, innovative and dynamic research infrastructure. More and more scientific knowledge indicates that key modifiable influences on overweight and obesity lie in our local environments. The FORESIGHT report (2007) illustrated the complex web of influences which are widely considered to foster overweight and obesity through the fundamental features of a complex adaptive system. These include long, non-linear causal chains which over time produce emergent properties and unintended effects in a dynamic system. WSAs seem to be appropriate to contribute to the reduction of overweight and obesity which are embedded in a complex adaptive system. The AHWA constitutes a WSA since it adopts the following working principles: actions aiming to modify the local political, physical, social, health education and careenvironment in multiple settings (the home, neighborhood, school and city);cross-sectoral working across municipal sectors and public, private, community and academicpartners to develop and implement actions;a learning approach to enable program adaptation in response to change in the complexadaptive system comprising the local environment (i.e. the Amsterdam context). The objectives of the workshop are fourfold: Present the WSA of the Amsterdam Healthy Weight Approach.Present the learning cycle, with a key role for Sarphati Amsterdam as multidisciplinary research institute in which the City and the Amsterdam knowledge institutions (University of Amsterdam, VU University, Amsterdam Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) cooperate.Share examples of participative research projects within the context of AHWA and Sarphati Amsterdam, through lived experiences.Invite participants of other cities for collaboration (City2City): shared learning to tackle this wicked problem is essential. Key messages Whole Systems Approaches are appropriate when tackling wicked public health problems. Whole Systems Approaches should be supported by innovative, adaptive, multidisciplinary research every step of the way.