ReviewPreventing chronic disease2009
Complex systems modeling for obesity research.
Review in Preventing chronic disease, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
107 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Non-traditional data sources in obesity research: a systematic review of their use in the study of obesogenic environments.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2023Pooled it
- Modeling obesity in complex food systems: Systematic review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Pooled it
- Simulation Modelling in Healthcare: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Literature Reviews.PharmacoEconomics · 2017Pooled it
- Agent-based modeling of noncommunicable diseases: a systematic review.American journal of public health · 2015Pooled it
- Systems science and childhood obesity: a systematic review and new directions.Journal of obesity · 2013Pooled it
- Towards a collaborative interdisciplinary systems approach to urban food system transformation: a case study from the Mandala research consortium.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The Relationship between Diet Costs and Dietary Adequacy: A Scoping Review of Measures and Methods with a Focus on Cost Estimation using Food Supply Data.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Insights from a codesigned dynamic modelling study of child and adolescent obesity in Australia.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Considerations for using participatory systems modeling as a tool for implementation mapping in chronic disease prevention.Annals of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Understanding the obesity dynamics by socioeconomic status in Colombian and Mexican cities using a system dynamics model.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Changes in systems thinking and health equity considerations across four communities participating in Catalyzing Communities.PloS one · 2024Article
- How do local authority plans to tackle obesity reflect systems thinking?Perspectives in public health · 2023Article
- An Agenda for Advancing Research and Prevention at the Nexus of Work Organization, Occupational Stress, and Mental Health and Well-Being.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Evolutionary success of the thrifty genotype depends on both behavioral adaptations and temporal variability in the food environment.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Understanding Misimplementation in U.S. State Health Departments: An Agent-Based Model.American journal of preventive medicine · 2023Article
- Understanding school food systems to support the development and implementation of food based policies and interventions.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Article
- Do you see the problem? Visualising a generalised 'complex local system' of antibiotic prescribing across the United Kingdom using qualitative interview data.Critical public health · 2023Article
- Applications of Complex Systems Models to Improve Retail Food Environments for Population Health: A Scoping Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- A Neuroeconomics Approach to Obesity.Biological psychiatry · 2022Review
- Article
47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The obesity epidemic has grown rapidly into a major public health challenge, in the United States and worldwide. The scope and scale of the obesity epidemic motivate an urgent need for well-crafted policy interventions to prevent further spread and (potentially) to reverse the epidemic. Yet several attributes of the epidemic make it an especially challenging problem both to study and to combat. This article shows that these attributes--the great breadth in levels of scale involved, the substantial diversity of relevant actors, and the multiplicity of mechanisms implicated--are characteristic of a complex adaptive system. It argues that the obesity epidemic is driven by such a system and that lessons and techniques from the field of complexity science can help inform both scientific study of obesity and effective policies to combat obesity. The article gives an overview of modeling techniques especially well suited to study the rich and complex dynamics of obesity and to inform policy design.
Indexed as
Identifiers
19527598PMC2722404What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.