Session: Building Evidence for a Systems Approach to Improve Environments for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity


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

5149.0: Wednesday, December 14, 2005: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM

Oral

Building Evidence for a Systems Approach to Improve Environments for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

The nation's obesity epidemic is a complex problem that involves eating and physical activity behaviors, the influence of social and physical environments on behavior, and the institutions and policies that support those environments. The trend for unhealthy eating and inactivity and has been linked to a multitude of environmental factors, including: availability of energy dense food and drinks in schools; lack of safety and places for physical activity; television time and exposure to intense marketing of energy dense foods; limited availability and affordability of fresh produce and healthy food options. A systems approach to complex problems leverages integrated thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration to arrive at workable solutions. This session will introduce Healthy Eating, Active Communities, a new $26.2 million, four-year initiative of the California Endowment, with a goal of reducing disparities in obesity by improving food and physical activity environments for school age children. The community demonstration component of the Healthy Eating, Active Communities initiative is designed around a systems approach to change policies and practices that influence eating and physical activity in school, after school, neighborhood, health care, and marketing / media environments. The collaborating agents of change are a broadly representative community organization, a school district, and the local public health department. A strategic logic model was developed to create a unified mission-vision across sectors by identifying common targets and linked interventions. Practice models for capacity building, integrated work and the evaluation framework will be presented.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to: 1) Describe participatory action across sectors to co-define the obesity problem, challenges, needs, and resources. 2) Identify a framework for integrated planning and evaluation of cross-sector efforts to improve food and activity environments. 3) Describe how strategies for modifying environments to improve choices related to nutrition and physical activity will be evaluated. 4) Describe training, technical assistance, and capacity-building needed for integrated work to improve environments for healthy eating and physical activity.

Organizer(s):

George Flores, MD

Moderator(s):

George Flores, MD

2:30 PM

Public health department capacity and chronic disease prevention