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Fitness in the City: A Community-Based Approach to Overweight and Obesity Management
Methods: Fitness in the City (FIC) provides financial and programmatic support to 10 community health centers for obesity management. Utilizing a case management model, FIC supports an infrastructure within the health centers to provide interventions to reduce BMI through physical activity and healthy eating. The case manager engages the child/family in both nutrition education and a community based physical activity option. The case manager administers a pre- and post-survey at 3 months to assess behavior changes, stays engaged with the family to encourage and support lifestyle changes, and the child’s BMI is assessed after a year.
Results: Participants have shown significant decreases in consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, increase physical activity, and decrease TV watching after 12 weeks. Results from almost 1988 children have shown significant reduction in mean BMI z-scores, from 2.02 at baseline to 1.96 one year after intervention (p<0.001) with 63% of participants maintaining or decreasing BMI z-score.
Discussion: Fitness in the City’s non-medical, case management model has been shown to significantly impact specific health behaviors that are associated with childhood obesity, as well as lower BMI. The FIC program model is one that fits nicely into the medical home model, as it uses case managers to provide culturally appropriate, coordinated care support that extends into the community.
Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health educationChronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Other professions or practice related to public health
Learning Objectives:
Describe effective strategies to manage childhood overweight and obesity.
Explain the benefits of a case management model for overweight and obesity management in a community setting.
Keyword(s): Obesity, Case Management
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Stacy Leavens, MA, is the program manager for Fitness in the City, providing the day to day support for the health centers and case managers. She provides program planning, resource coordination, and financial management.
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.