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Published in: International Journal of Public Health 9/2017

01-12-2017 | Review

Ethical issues in obesity prevention for school children: a systematic qualitative review

Authors: Hannes Kahrass, Daniel Strech, Marcel Mertz

Published in: International Journal of Public Health | Issue 9/2017

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Abstract

Objectives

Planning and conducting preventive measures against obesity for school children is beset with ethical issues which should be known to make well-informed decisions. The goal of this study was to provide a comprehensive spectrum of these ethical issues by means of a systematic review. In this context, the study also assesses the value of different search strategies for ethical literature in public health.

Methods

Literature was searched in Medline, EBSCO and others. Three different search strategies with varied scopes were applied and their output was compared. Qualitative content analysis was used for extracting and categorizing ethical issues.

Results

109 publications (published from 1995 to 2015) were finally included. The qualitative analysis resulted in 60 potentially relevant ethical issues. The three search strategies showed substantial differences regarding their search results.

Conclusions

The presented spectrum provides an initial evidence base for dealing with ethical issues adequately. The findings of the study further suggest that a broader scope is more fruitful for systematic reviews on ethical issues in the field of public health.
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Metadata
Title
Ethical issues in obesity prevention for school children: a systematic qualitative review
Authors
Hannes Kahrass
Daniel Strech
Marcel Mertz
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Published in
International Journal of Public Health / Issue 9/2017
Print ISSN: 1661-8556
Electronic ISSN: 1661-8564
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-1027-9

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