A cross-European team of researchers have reported the results of the four-year, €3.7m SPOTLIGHT study into measures to prevent adult obesity and the role of the environment. They find that urban planners have a responsibility to ensure that the neighbourhoods they design will promote healthy behaviour, and better still if the environment can encourage social networking and community support.

The researchers also find that local interventions to prevent obesity and encourage healthy behaviour need to be adapted to local needs, and the planning of interventions should involve the people being targeted. This may require ‘two-phase’ funding, with an initial fund for participatory design and piloting of a project, and a second phase to implement it if the initial phase shows promise.

“Health promotion in communities is important, and can be successful,” said SPOTLIGHT project coordinator Dr Jeroen Lakerveld of the VU University Medical Canter, Amsterdam. “But short-term funding for community projects may lead to frustration and poor project morale. The agencies that supply funding need to realise that sustained support is needed to get sustained results. Promoting strong communities and re-designing the built environment can contribute significantly to sustainable changes in health behaviour.”

The SPOTLIGHT project undertook surveys of people’s views on what constituted their local environment and investigated tools such as Google StreetView to assess the quality of neighbourhoods.