Awareness, Facilitators, and Barriers to Policy Implementation Related to Obesity Prevention for Primary School Children in Malaysia

Some school-based research carried out in older children has identified general themes e.g. commitment and leadership within schools as enabling strategies and a lack of time and external resources as barriers.

“Some school-based research carried out in older children has identified general themes e.g. commitment and leadership within schools as enabling strategies and a lack of time and external resources as barriers [16–19],”

This commitment by the schools, and buy in from staff members and students has also been noted previously as a key facilitator.

“This commitment by the schools, and buy in from staff members and students has also been noted previously as a key facilitator [16–19].”

Previous research in this area is limited to a recent cross-sectional study of primary schools in Malaysia and to studies conducted with staff in schools with different target age groups, 9-13 year-olds (middle schools) in the US and to teenagers in the Netherlands.

“Previous research in this area is limited to a recent cross-sectional study of primary schools in Malaysia [19] and to studies conducted with staff in schools with different target age groups, 9–13 year-olds (middle schools) in the US [16, 17] and to teenagers in the Netherlands [18].”

Barriers associated with budgetary limitations and time constraints have previously been noted.

“Barriers associated with budgetary limitations [17] and time constraints [17, 19] have previously been noted.”

Other barriers identified in these studies; high staff turnover, lack of equipment and insufficient or lack of access to training were not applicable to our setting.

“Other barriers identified in these studies; high staff turnover [16, 18], lack of equipment [19] and insufficient or lack of access to training [19, 37] were not applicable to our setting.”