The ironies of public health policy

This week the CIS' WasteWatch blog focused on a new taxpayer-funded growth industry – the ever increasing number of reports into Australia's obesity 'epidemic'.

This is a very lucrative business for public health academics, especially now that the National Preventive Health Agency is able to fund research into the stubborn problems of over-eating and sedentary lifestyles.

However, the proliferation of obesity-related reports reflects the hard truth of public health policy – we have next to no idea about what actually works in terms of getting people off the couch and out of the takeaway shops.

The evidence regarding the effectiveness of the billions of dollars that Australian governments already spend on the promotion of healthy lifestyles is very weak.

This was the central finding of the UK Wanless review of public health policy, which found, in particular, that 'there is little evidence about what works among disadvantaged groups to tackle some of the key determinants of health inequalities.'

The lack of evidence reflects the fact that in a free society, governments rightly have limited authority over unhealthy lifestyle behaviours and lack the ability to micro-manage daily dietary and exercise habits.

Achieving lifestyle change is also extremely difficult as it ultimately depends on personal qualities – will, self-discipline, and impulse control – that public health policies struggle to instil in people who do not already possess them.

Not for nothing, therefore, have anti-obesity campaigns been accurately described as a 'policy looking for an evidence base.'

Obesity invites endless investigation and report after report after report.

Herein lies a greater irony. Those who endlessly warn the community about the perils of eating too much junk food have much in common with so-called 'vice industries' they love to attack.

Like those who trade in fatty foods and sugary and alcoholic drinks, the public health lobby is equally dependent on the flaws and weaknesses inherent in human nature to justify its call on public resources.

Rather than continuing to pour money into public health research that implausibly seeks to straighten the crooked timber of humanity, policy makers would be better off recognising the limits of government activity in relation to obesity.

Dr Jeremy Sammut is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.