Patchy progress on obesity prevention: emerging examples, entrenched barriers, and new thinking
Open accessAbstract
Despite isolated areas of improvement, no country to date has reversed its obesity epidemic. Governments, together with a broad range of stakeholders, need to act urgently to decrease the prevalence of obesity. In this Series paper, we review several regulatory and non-regulatory actions taken around the world to address obesity and discuss some of the reasons for the scarce and fitful progress. Additionally, we preview the papers in this Lancet Series, which each identify high-priority actions on key obesity issues and challenge some of the entrenched dichotomies that dominate the thinking about obesity and its solutions. Although obesity is acknowledged as a complex issue, many debates about its causes and solutions are centred around overly simple dichotomies that present seemingly competing perspectives. Examples of such dichotomies explored in this Series include personal versus collective responsibilities for actions, supply versus demand-type explanations for consumption of unhealthy food, government regulation versus industry self-regulation, top-down versus bottom-up drivers for change, treatment versus prevention priorities, and a focus on undernutrition versus overnutrition. We also explore the dichotomy of individual versus environmental drivers of obesity and conclude that people bear some personal responsibility for their health, but environmental factors can readily support or undermine the ability of people to act in their own self-interest. We propose a refra…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Health-focused nutrition information strategies have had limited impact.
“Unfortunately, these strategies have had limited impact (Hawkes et al., 2015; Roberto et al., 2015).”
From Increasing Vegetable Intake by Emphasizing Tasty and Enjoyable Attributes: A Randomized Controlled Multisite Intervention for Taste-Focused Labeling (2019) · cites this paper as Roberto et al., 2015
Cites
Status quo bias in decision making
Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988) · Journal of Risk and Uncertainty · doi:10.1007/bf00055564 · Cited by 5,897 · see citing works
Finucane, M. M., Stevens, G. A., Cowan, M. J., Danaei, G., Lin, J. K., Paciorek, C. J., Singh, G. M., Gutierrez, H. R., Lu, Y., Bahalim, A. N., et al. (2011) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)62037-5 · Cited by 4,050 · see citing works
Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture
Lobstein, T., Jackson-Leach, R., Moodie, M. L., Hall, K. D., Gortmaker, S. L., Swinburn, B. A., James, W. P. T., Wang, Y., & McPherson, K. (2015) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61746-3 · Cited by 1,279 · see citing works
Self-citationGuthrie, J. F., Lin, B.-H., & Frazao, E. (2002) · Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior · doi:10.1016/s1499-4046(06)60083-3 · Cited by 973 · see citing works
Tackling of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and obesity: health effects and cost-effectiveness
Cecchini, M., Sassi, F., Lauer, J. A., Lee, Y. Y., Guajardo-Barron, V., & Chisholm, D. (2010) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)61514-0 · Cited by 889 · see citing works
Mozaffarian, D., Afshin, A., Benowitz, N. L., Bittner, V., Daniels, S. R., Franch, H. A., Jacobs, D. R., Kraus, W. E., Kris-Etherton, P. M., Krummel, D. A., et al. (2012) · Circulation · doi:10.1161/cir.0b013e318260a20b · Cited by 601 · see citing works
Harris, J. L., Pomeranz, J. L., Lobstein, T., & Brownell, K. D. (2009) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.031308.100304 · Cited by 549 · see citing works
Self-citationAdaptive thermogenesis in humans
Rosenbaum, M., & Leibel, R. L. (2010) · International Journal of Obesity · doi:10.1038/ijo.2010.184 · Cited by 349 · see citing works
Popkin, B., Monteiro, C., & Swinburn, B. (2013) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.12108 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Self-citationJohnson, E. J., & Goldstein, D. (2003) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1091721 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Roth, G. A., Abate, D., Abate, K. H., Abay, S. M., Abbafati, C., Abbasi, N., Abbastabar, H., Abd-Allah, F., Abdela, J., Abdelalim, A., et al. (2018) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32203-7 · Cited by 8,600 · see citing works
Health effects of overweight and obesity in 195 countries over 25 years
Collaborators, T. G. 2. O. (2017) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa1614362 · Cited by 7,918 · see citing works
Forouzanfar, M. H., Afshin, A., Alexander, L. T., Anderson, H. R., Bhutta, Z. A., Biryukov, S., Brauer, M., Burnett, R., Cercy, K., Charlson, F. J., et al. (2016) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)31679-8 · Cited by 7,698 · see citing works
Obesity: global epidemiology and pathogenesis
Blüher, M. (2019) · Nature Reviews Endocrinology · doi:10.1038/s41574-019-0176-8 · Cited by 5,126 · see citing works
The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission report
Swinburn, B. A., Kraak, V. I., Allender, S., Atkins, V. J., Baker, P. I., Bogard, J. R., Brinsden, H., Calvillo, A., De Schutter, O., Devarajan, R., et al. (2019) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32822-8 · Cited by 3,081 · see citing works
Self-citationGakidou, E., Afshin, A., Abajobir, A. A., Abate, K. H., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K. M., Abd-Allah, F., Abdulle, A. M., Abera, S. F., Aboyans, V., et al. (2017) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(17)32366-8 · Cited by 2,406 · see citing works
Adipose tissue inflammation and metabolic dysfunction in obesity
Kawai, T., Autieri, M. V., & Scalia, R. (2021) · American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology · doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00379.2020 · Cited by 1,947 · see citing works
Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture
Lobstein, T., Jackson-Leach, R., Moodie, M. L., Hall, K. D., Gortmaker, S. L., Swinburn, B. A., James, W. P. T., Wang, Y., & McPherson, K. (2015) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61746-3 · Cited by 1,279 · see citing works
Self-citationThe obesity transition: stages of the global epidemic
Jaacks, L. M., Vandevijvere, S., Pan, A., McGowan, C. J., Wallace, C., Imamura, F., Mozaffarian, D., Swinburn, B., & Ezzati, M. (2019) · The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology · doi:10.1016/s2213-8587(19)30026-9 · Cited by 1,193 · see citing works
Self-citationBaker, P., Machado, P., Santos, T., Sievert, K., Backholer, K., Hadjikakou, M., Russell, C., Huse, O., Bell, C., Scrinis, G., et al. (2020) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.13126 · Cited by 1,194 · see citing works
Lifestyle modification approaches for the treatment of obesity in adults.
Wadden, T. A., Tronieri, J. S., & Butryn, M. L. (2020) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/amp0000517 · Cited by 661 · see citing works
Swinburn, B., Kraak, V., Rutter, H., Vandevijvere, S., Lobstein, T., Sacks, G., Gomes, F., Marsh, T., & Magnusson, R. (2015) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61747-5 · Cited by 399 · see citing works
Self-citationFildes, A., Charlton, J., Rudisill, C., Littlejohns, P., Prevost, A. T., & Gulliford, M. C. (2015) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2015.302773 · Cited by 394 · see citing works
Ahmed, S. K., & Mohammed, R. A. (2025) · Metabolism Open · doi:10.1016/j.metop.2025.100375 · Cited by 432 · see citing works
Regarding Obesity as a Disease
Kyle, T. K., Dhurandhar, E. J., & Allison, D. B. (2016) · Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.ecl.2016.04.004 · Cited by 333 · see citing works
Obesity Stigma: Causes, Consequences, and Potential Solutions
Westbury, S., Oyebode, O., van Rens, T., & Barber, T. M. (2023) · Current Obesity Reports · doi:10.1007/s13679-023-00495-3 · Cited by 317 · see citing works
Epidemiology of Obesity in Adults: Latest Trends
Inoue, Y., Qin, B., Poti, J., Sokol, R., & Gordon-Larsen, P. (2018) · Current Obesity Reports · doi:10.1007/s13679-018-0317-8 · Cited by 308 · see citing works
Skipping breakfast is associated with overweight and obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Ma, X., Chen, Q., Pu, Y., Guo, M., Jiang, Z., Huang, W., Long, Y., & Xu, Y. (2020) · Obesity Research & Clinical Practice · doi:10.1016/j.orcp.2019.12.002 · Cited by 293 · see citing works
Playing the policy game: a review of the barriers to and enablers of nutrition policy change
Cullerton, K., Donnet, T., Lee, A., & Gallegos, D. (2016) · Public Health Nutrition · doi:10.1017/s1368980016000677 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Dietary fiber and satiety: the effects of oats on satiety
Rebello, C. J., O’Neil, C. E., & Greenway, F. L. (2016) · Nutrition Reviews · doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuv063 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Turnwald, B. P., Bertoldo, J. D., Perry, M. A., Policastro, P., Timmons, M., Bosso, C., Connors, P., Valgenti, R. T., Pine, L., Challamel, G., et al. (2019) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797619872191 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Machado, P. P., Claro, R. M., Canella, D. S., Sarti, F. M., & Levy, R. B. (2017) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.05.027 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Williams, L., Barnes, K., Ball, L., Ross, L., Sladdin, I., & Mitchell, L. (2019) · Healthcare · doi:10.3390/healthcare7010020 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Physical activity and exercise for weight loss and maintenance in people living with obesity
Oppert, J.-M., Ciangura, C., & Bellicha, A. (2023) · Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders · doi:10.1007/s11154-023-09805-5 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Effect of the Holiday Season on Weight Gain: A Narrative Review
Díaz-Zavala, R. G., Castro-Cantú, M. F., Valencia, M. E., Álvarez-Hernández, G., Haby, M. M., & Esparza-Romero, J. (2017) · Journal of Obesity · doi:10.1155/2017/2085136 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Nederveen, J. P., Mastrolonardo, A. J., Xhuti, D., Di Carlo, A., Manta, K., Fuda, M. R., & Tarnopolsky, M. A. (2023) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu15173693 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Moran, A., Musicus, A., Soo, J., Gearhardt, A. N., Gollust, S. E., & Roberto, C. A. (2016) · Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.06.018 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Self-citationDiscovery of a role of the novel hepatokine, hepassocin, in obesity
Huang, R., Li, C., Du, Y., Cheng, K., Lin, C., Hu, C., Wu, J. S., Chang, C., Wu, H., & Ou, H. (2020) · BioFactors · doi:10.1002/biof.1574 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Lyu, B., Chang, A. R., Inker, L. A., Selvin, E., Grams, M. E., & Shin, J.-I. (2022) · The Lancet Regional Health - Americas · doi:10.1016/j.lana.2022.100249 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Examining the role of weight status and Individual attributes on adolescent social relations
Jacobs, W., Merianos, A. L., Lee Smith, M., Nabors, L., Fajayan, A., & Valente, T. W. (2020) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.01.014 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Duus, K. S., Bonnesen, C. T., Rosing, J. A., Madsen, K. R., Pedersen, T. P., Toftager, M., Thygesen, L. C., & Krølner, R. F. (2022) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-021-01228-2 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
- Authors
- Roberto, C. A., Swinburn, B., Hawkes, C., Huang, T. T.-K., Costa, S. A., Ashe, M., Zwicker, L., Cawley, J. H., & Brownell, K. D.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- World Cancer Research Fund International (GB)
- City University of New York (US)
- ChangeLab Solutions (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Roberto, Christina A
- Venue
- The Lancet
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-06
- Volume
- 385
- Issue
- 9985
- Pages
- 2400-2409
- ISSN
- 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
- 0140-6736
- OpenAlex
- W2140173726
- Cited by
- 939
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 67 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 100 · 2021: 104 · 2020: 113 · 2019: 103 · 2018: 102 · 2017: 92 · 2016: 66 · 2015: 46
- FWCI
- 20.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- Locations
- The Lancet (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- World Cancer Research Fund International
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Obesity and Health Practices
- Keywords
- obesity prevention, obesity epidemic, food environment, food regulation, unhealthy food consumption, personal responsibility, collective responsibility, barriers to prevention, environmental determinants of health
- MeSH terms
- Food Labeling, Food Preferences, Food Services, Health Policy, Health Priorities, Health Promotion, Humans, Obesity, Policy Making, Schools, Global Health, Food Industry
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
