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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (2 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2013)

Objective: This research assesses how the public and experts currently think about and discusses obesity within the context of dominant causal and solution frames such as personal responsibility, proposed alternative frames, and values associated with these frames. This research also empirically tests whether exposure to two alternative frames (the Life-Course Perspective and the Manipulation frame), or two value statements (social responsibility and equality of opportunity), significantly influence support for health policies that address the social and environmental constraints that contribute to obesity. Data: This research uses 3 original data sets, including content analysis transcripts, quantitative content analysis data and experimental survey data. Methods: Strategic Frame Analysis (SFA) is used to deconstruct the dominant frames of reference that drive reasoning on public issues, including qualitative expert interviews, quantitative content analyses of online news media and online readers' comments, and a population-based survey experiment. Bivariate tests of significance and logistic regression models are estimated. Results: Experts and the public have different perspectives on causal attributes and perceptions of responsibility though common areas exist. Where experts invoke the environmental frame and social responsibility, the public invokes the personal responsibility frame and autonomy. The media also significantly influences the public's use of frames in obesity discourse. In the experimental study, exposure to both alternative frames and values significantly influenced support for one healthy policy-breastfeeding support in the workplace. No other statistically significant results were found. Implications: This research shows that exposure to any frame other than the personal responsibility could influence public opinion and support for structural-level health policies. The research also identifies a false dichotomy between the environmental frame and personal responsibility. The manipulation frame can serve as a sub-frame of the environmental frame which can be more effective in identifying specific causal attributes and solution attributes.

    Cover page: Identifying Alternative Frames and Values to Increase Public Support for Health Policies that Target Obesity
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UCLA Previously Published Works (2016)

    Background

    Support for policies to combat obesity is often undermined by a public sense that obesity is largely a matter of personal responsibility. Industry rhetoric is a major contributor to this perception, as the soda/fast food/big food companies emphasize choice and individual agency in their efforts to neutralize policies that are burdensome. Yet obesity experts recognize that environmental forces play a major role in obesity. We investigate whether exposure to a taste-engineering frame increases support for food and beverage policies that address obesity. A taste-engineering frame details strategies used by the food industry to engineer preferences and increase the over-consumption of processed foods and sugary beverages. We also examine the effects of exposure to two contextualized values that have recently been promoted in expert discourse-consumer knowledge and consumer safety - on public support of policies. Our research shows how causal frames and contextualized values may effectively produce support for new obesity policies.

    Methods

    We use an online survey experiment to test the effects of exposure to a taste-engineering frame (TEF), the value of consumer knowledge (CK), or the value of consumer safety (CS), on level of support for a range of policies. A random sample of adults, age 18 + living in the United States was included in the study (N = 2580). Ordered logistic regression was used to measure the effects of treatment exposure. The primary outcome was level-of-support for four (4) food-industry related, obesity prevention policies (aka food and beverage policies): 1) require food-manufacturers to disclose the amount of additives in food products on food packaging; 2) require food-manufacturers to advertise food products in accordance with their actual nutritional value; 3) prohibit all high-fat, high-sugar food advertising on television programming watched primarily by children; and 4) increase healthy food availability in work sites, schools, and hospitals.

    Findings

    These data suggest that a taste-engineering frame and contextualized values significantly increase public support for many of the food and beverage policies tested.

    Conclusions

    Applying a taste-engineering frame and/or contextualized values to address obesity advances a population-based policy agenda to counteract the effects of food-industry strategies.
      Cover page: Increasing public support for food-industry related, obesity prevention policies: The role of a taste-engineering frame and contextualized values
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