A qualitative study on health policies for childhood diabesity prevention in the Dominican Republic

Childhood diabesity is an increasing problem around the world. Diabesity is a term that denotes the association between obesity and type 2 Diabetes (Shape Up, 2007). It is also known as Obesity-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (Astrup & Finer, 2000). Research data on childhood diabesity is scarce. The risk for diabesity is high for people from the Dominican Republic because of the existence of biologically-inherited genotype markers and the presence of behavioral factors such as the consumption of diets high in fat. The qualitative study here described involved nominal and focus groups with 39 health care providers (nurses; psychologists; and medical doctors in general practice and in specialty practices such as pediatrics, endocrinology, nutrition, metabolism, and family medicine) working at a hospital specialized in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Nutrition in the Dominican Republic. Data was gathered to assess proposed health policies in the following nominal categories: hospital and health care system policies, school and community policies, and advertising/marketing policies. Data was analyzed using a qualitative software called NVivo.
Policy is an essential component of Public Health. Policy efforts around the world have historically been aimed to control diabetes. There is an increasing need to look at childhood overweight as an urgent public health problem with an important health policy component . This study attempted to produce evidence of the need on health policy for the prevention of childhood diabesity in the Dominican Republic.