Successes and challenges in community-based childhood obesity prevention

Since 1998, dozens of US communities have launched childhood obesity prevention projects and, in the past 5 years, regional and national institutions have begun mobilizing to support them. Yet we know little about how these projects are working. This paper reviews and analyzes the current state of community-based childhood obesity prevention in the US. Methods are (a) reviews of grey and academic literature to plot historical trends of community childhood obesity prevention projects and the main organizations supporting them and (b) in-depth case studies of 4 community projects using stakeholder interviews, document analysis and, for 2 of the projects, author participation. The project case studies, selected for variation, are the HOPE Collaborative (Oakland, CA), Whole Community Project (Tompkins County, NY), Eat Well Play Hard Chemung (Chemung County, NY) and Shape up Somerville (Somerville, MA). Results will focus on the challenges these projects have faced in sustaining their work and garnering a broad participation base, on the successes their participants feel they have achieved, and the roles regional and national institutions working in this arena (e.g., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Centers for Disease Control) are playing in this community work. The discussion will focus on what these institutions can do to further leverage and learn from these successes and help communities overcome the challenges in this work.