ReviewObesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity2020
Social norms and obesity prevalence: From cohort to system dynamics models.
Review in Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Application of system dynamics approach in developing health interventions to strengthen health systems to combat obesity: a systematic literature review and critical analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Genetic and environmental influences on educational disparities in adult weight change: an individual-based pooled analysis of 11 twin cohorts.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- The Young Adult Sleep model: an evolving causal loop diagram of mental health dynamics.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Causal Loop Diagrams of Food Systems, Diet, and Obesity: A Scoping Review of Methods, Contextual Factors, and Outcomes.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Article
- Generational differences in associations between health conditions in young women and BMI categories.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
- Systems approaches in public health: beyond mapping the causes.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Review
- Cohort Profile Update: The Healthy Life in an Urban Setting (HELIUS) Study.International journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Understanding the dynamics driving obesity in socioeconomically deprived urban neighbourhoods: an expert-based systems map.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Planning guidance to limit hot food takeaways: Understanding the possible economic impacts.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Elusive boundaries: using an attribute framework to describe systems for population physical activity promotion.Health promotion international · 2024Article
- Using network analysis to identify leverage points based on causal loop diagrams leads to false inference.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A data-driven computational model for obesity-driven diabetes onset and remission through weight loss.iScience · 2023Article
- Applying systems thinking to unravel the mechanisms underlying orthostatic hypotension related fall risk.GeroScience · 2023Article
- Trends in the distribution of body mass index, waist circumference and prevalence of obesity among Taiwanese adults, 1993-2016.PloS one · 2022Article
- Inferring temporal dynamics from cross-sectional data using Langevin dynamics.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Understanding the impact of exposure to adverse socioeconomic conditions on chronic stress from a complexity science perspective.BMC medicine · 2021Article
- A unifying model to estimate the effect of heat stress in the human innate immunity during physical activities.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Understanding obesity-related behaviors in youth from a systems dynamics perspective: The use of causal loop diagrams.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021Review
- Diverse Approaches to Creating and Using Causal Loop Diagrams in Public Health Research: Recommendations From a Scoping Review.Public health reviews · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Group-level obesity can be seen as an emergent property of a complex system, consisting of feedback loops between individual body weight perception, individual weight-related behaviour and group-level social norms (a product of group-level 'normal' body mass index (BMI) and sociocultural 'ideal' BMI). As overweight becomes normal, the norm might be counteracting health awareness in shaping individual weight-related behaviour. System dynamics modelling facilitates understanding and simulating this system's emergent behaviour. We constructed six system dynamics models (SDMs) based on an expert-informed causal loop diagram and data from six sociocultural groups (Dutch, Moroccan and South-Asian Surinamese men and women). The SDMs served to explore the effect of three scenarios on group-level BMI: 'what if' weight-related behaviour were driven by (1) health awareness, (2) norms or (3) a combination of the two. Median BMI decreased approximately 50% and 30% less in scenarios 2 and 3, respectively, than in 1. In men, the drop in BMI was approximately two times larger in scenario 1 versus 3, whereas in women, the drop was approximately equal in these scenarios. This study indicates that the overweight norm in men holds group-level BMI close to overweight despite health awareness. Since norms are counteracting health awareness less strongly in women, other drivers of obesity must be more relevant.
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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.