The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #44730

Geanne K Lyons, MPH, California Obesity Prevention Initiative, California Department of Health Services, PO Box 942732, MS 675, Sacramento, CA 94234, (916) 445-7054, glyons@dhs.ca.gov, Curt Weidmer, MPH, MD, Epidemiology and Health Promotion Section, California Department of Health Services, 601 North 7th Street, MS-675, Sacramento, CA 95814, Peggy Agron, MA, RD, Project LEAN, California Department of Health Services, PO Box 942732, MS-675, Sacramento, CA 94234-7320, and Sharyn Sutton, PhD, Sutton Group, 4590 MacArthur Blvd, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20007.

There has been a dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity over the past ten years. In California over half of all adults are overweight, one in every five children is at risk for being overweight and one in every three to five teens is at risk for being overweight. As a result, there has been an alarming increase in type 2 diabetes and hypercholesterolemia in youth. Conservative estimates place the economic burden of overweight and obesity at $12 billion per year for California. The California Obesity Prevention Initiative (COPI) is a three-year obesity prevention project funded by the Centers for Disease Control. The COPI developed and will implement an obesity prevention pilot project utilizing social marketing principles to target youth aged 11-13 years old. The three potential target behaviors that were explored are increasing physical activity, decreasing television viewing or decreasing soda consumption. The formative research (e.g., literature review and focus groups results), target audience profile and strategies of the pilot project will be presented.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• Identify at least three primary and secondary sources of data used during the formative research phase.
• Describe at least two steps used to segment the target population.
• Identify at least two strategies to address obesity prevention in "tweens".

Keywords: Social Marketing, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.