Public and health professionals' misconceptions about the dynamics of body weight gain/loss
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Authors
Abdel-Hamid, Tarek
Ankel, Felix
Battle-Fisher, Michele
Gibson, Bryan
Gonzalez-Parra, Gilberto
Jalali, Mohammad
Kaipainen, Kirsikka
Kalupahana, Nishan
Karanfil, Ozge
Marathe, Achla
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2014
Date
January-June 2014
Publisher
Language
Abstract
Human body energy storage operates as a stock-and-flow system with inflow (food intake) and outflow
(energy expenditure). In spite of the ubiquity of stock-and-flow structures, evidence suggests that
human beings fail to understand stock accumulation and rates of change, a difficulty called the
stock–flow failure. This study examines the influence of health care training and cultural background
in overcoming stock–flow failure. A standardized protocol assessed lay people’s and health care
professionals’ ability to apply stock-and-flow reasoning to infer the dynamics of weight gain/loss
during the holiday season (621 subjects from seven countries). Our results indicate that both types
of subjects exhibited systematic errors indicative of use of erroneous heuristics. Indeed 76% of lay subjects
and 71% of health care professionals failed to understand the simple dynamic impact of energy
intake and energy expenditure on body weight. Stock–flow failure was found across cultures and was
not improved by professional health training. The problem of stock–flow failure as a transcultural global
issue with education and policy implications is discussed.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sdr.1517
Series/Report No
Department
Information Sciences (IS)
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NPS Report Number
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Citation
System Dynamics Review, Vol 30, No 1-2, (January-June 2014): pp. 58–74
Distribution Statement
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.