People Listen to Health Care Providers

Rashawn Ray

Rashawn Ray is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park and a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholar at the University of California in Berkeley and San Francisco. He is on Twitter.

Updated December 19, 2013, 3:26 PM

Teaching an old dog new tricks is extremely difficult, but it is doable. I guess Mayor Bloomberg gets an A for effort. Unlike other mayors, he is continuously trying to implement policies to change consumption behavior. Nonetheless, restricting access to drinks over 16 ounces may do little to curb obesity. Studies show that less than 10 percent of a person's daily caloric intake stems from drinks. This means that more than 90 percent of nutritional intake is not being addressed.

When individuals understand why they need to increase physical activity and stop eating certain foods, they usually alter bad habits.

I agree with Bloomberg. Individuals consume too many sodas and sugary drinks. Yet, this policy is like taking candy away from kids. When they finally get a hold of the Halloween basket they go crazy. In other words, companies will simply manufacture drinks that are 16 ounces instead of 20 ounces and individuals will simply adapt to that new model.

We can look to successes to curb smoking for policy lessons on how to change behavior. First, people will simply find ways to purchase in places with cheaper prices, even crossing state lines to do so. What does work, however, are the recommendations from health care providers advising patients to reduce smoking.

My research on the effect of health care providers' recommendations on physical activity shows that the content and quality of the advice given to patients about weight loss and physical activity matter. For example, tailored advice given to black women that takes into account their barriers to physical activity can increase physical activity.

When individuals understand why they need to increase physical activity and stop eating certain foods, they usually alter bad habits -- advice from health care providers is effective. What we need is an empirically tested script for health care providers to advise patients along the lines of race, gender and body type.

Still, the elephant in the room about ways to break society's bad health habits is the importance of ways to increase neighborhood access to recreational facilities, green spaces and healthy food options. New opportunities and new environments lead to new behavior.

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Topics: obesity, regulation

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