268802 Evaluation of a community based intervention for overweight and obese children

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Urmi Bhaumik, MBBS, MS, DSc , Office of Child Advocacy, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
Christine Locke Healey, MPH , New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA
Deborah Dickerson, BA , Office of Child Advocacy, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
Shari Nethersole, MD , Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
John Riordan, Master of City & Regional Planning , Office of Child Advocacy, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA
Background: Community-based approaches to prevent childhood obesity show promise of being effective, sustainable and cost effective. There is a lack of systematic tracking and evaluation for such interventions.

Objective: Fitness in the City (FIC) was developed in collaboration with 11 community health centers (CHCs), to build capacity to manage obesity by utilizing existing infrastructures. FIC uses a case management model to provide nutrition education and physical activity to overweight children. It incorporates sharing knowledge and best practices amongst providers.

Design/Methods: Evaluation for FIC is based on the CDC's framework for program evaluation which is tailored to different audiences. Formative evaluation identifies: need, target population, zip codes for intervention. Process evaluation includes: number of children reached, provider referrals to FIC. Outcome evaluation focuses on: systemic, environmental, social, behavioral and health results. Information is collected through pre- post surveys of families and providers, and focus groups.

Results: All CHCs successfully implemented a data tracking system- incorporating routine measurement of BMI for all patients, and referrals of overweight patients to FIC. Providers are more confident managing obesity and aware of resources. Patients receive physical activity scholarships. Over 2500 children enrolled and 1400 completed 12 week surveys demonstrating significant decrease in sugar sweetened beverage consumption, increased physical activity, and decreased TV viewing. BMI results for 950 patients show significant reduction in mean BMI z-scores, from 2.03 at baseline to 1.96 one year after intervention (p<0.001).

Conclusions: These evaluation findings have reaffirmed the importance of FIC and the value and health/social impact in the community.

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice

Learning Objectives:
• The importance of evaluation in addressing childhood obesity • Importance of involving the stakeholders from the start in the evaluation process • Building an uniform measuring tool for the community health centers • Importance of reporting the findings to the different audiences •

Keywords: Chronic Diseases, Community Health Centers

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have no confliocts of interest to disclose
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4375.0: Obesity and Overweight in Youth