Obesity Prevention Decision Making from the Perspective of Local and State Health Department Officials

The obesity epidemic poses major challenges for policy makers, public health professionals, and other decision makers who need to act decisively to respond to this widespread health problem. To inform their decisions, they need relevant and useful evidence on promising obesity prevention actions for the populations they serve. If decision makers are able to collect and use the best available evidence and work with researchers to generate additional useful evidence, they will be armed with the most appropriate and relevant knowledge for their particular locale to determine what actions to take on new obesity prevention initiatives as well as policies and programs already in place. Dr. Valadez will discuss the IOM's Bridging the Evidence Gap report recommendations from the perspective of local and state health department officials. He will talk about what is new in the framework proposed in the report and how these innovative approaches can help obesity prevention decision makers and those who assist them. Dr. Valadez will also lead the audience through a practical example of how the framework can be used to inform decisions about obesity prevention and help to generate additional relevant evidence.