Online professional development increases the capacity of public health professionals to take a community-based approach to address childhood obesity

There is an urgent need to build the capacity of public health practitioners to take an ecological, community-based approach to obesity prevention. Such an approach focuses on changes needed at the community level to support and enable healthy eating and active living, and is more likely to be effective and sustainable than targeting individual behavior change. Online education provides an efficient way to reach practitioners who don't have time or resources for travel. Preventing Childhood Obesity: An Ecological Approach is a six-week online course offered by Cornell University. Based on Green and Kreuter's PRECEDE-PROCEED model, the course helps participants assess and prioritize local factors related to childhood obesity, build collaborations, and develop an action plan for community intervention. A facilitator interacts with participants throughout the course. Twenty-two professionals participated in the course's first session in Fall 2006; additional sessions are underway and will reach an estimated 50-75 more professionals in 2007. Evaluation results from the first session showed improved knowledge, skills, confidence, and intended behavior. For example, of the 20 who completed the post-course survey, a mean of 92% felt fairly or extremely confident in their ability to develop effective collaborations, identify appropriate intervention strategies, and develop a community-based action plan to address childhood obesity at the end of the course compared to 15% at baseline. In addition, 95% intended to apply what they learned to their work. This project is funded by USDA and Cornell University.