Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112472

Donna B. Johnson, RD, PhD¹, Marilyn H. Sitaker, MPH², Lynne T. Smith, PhD, MPH, RD³, Erica V. Lamson¹, and James Kissee⁴. (1) School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Nutritional Sciences Program, BOX 353410, Seattle, WA 98195, (2) Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Nutrition & Physical Activity Section, Washington State Department of Health, 7211 Cleanwater Lane, Bldg 15, Tumwater, WA 98504, (3) Nutritional Sciences, The Center for Public Heatlh Nutrition, Box 353410, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, (4) Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Nutrition& Physical Activity Section, Washington State Department of Health, 111 Israel Rd, Tumwater, WA 98504, 360-236-3623, James.Kissee@DOH.WA.GOV

Since 2003, the City of Moses Lake, Washington (population 25,000), has been serving as a pilot for evidence based approaches to policy and environmental change for nutrition and physical activity as recommended in the Washington State Plan for Nutrition and Physical Activity. Criteria for the selection of Moses Lake included relative geographic isolation, indicators of readiness to change in the community, support of city officials, and ethnic and economic diversity in the population. Both the city council and the county board of health formally approved a Healthy Communities partnership with the Washington State Department of health. First steps in Moses Lake included meetings with about 50 stakeholders who represented a wide spectrum of interests including parks and recreation, farmer's markets, schools, the hospital, clinics and medical practices, transportation, media, food assistance programs, weight loss and physical activity programs, and service organizations. Task forces were formed to conduct an audit of the existing nutrition and physical activity environment. A strategic planning group developed a Healthy Communities plan that included three arenas for early action: breastfeeding, community trails and community gardens. Process evaluation results indicate that Moses Lake has been successful in integrating the Healthy Communities work into strategic planning for the City as a whole and in moving forward in each of these initial focus areas. Long term evaluation plans include a comparison of a baseline BRFSS oversample of the Moses Lake population to data that will be collected in future BRFSS oversamples.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to describe the process that was used to work with one community to choose, apply and evaluate evidence based approaches to environmental change for nutrition and physical activity
• Participants will be able to access information about the nutrition and physical activity plans for Washington State and Moses Lake.

Keywords: Community, Nutrition

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation