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333104
Population-level impact of a place-based obesity prevention initiative: Evaluation results from the Kaiser Permanente HEAL Zones in Northern California


Tuesday, November 3, 2015 : 12:30 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.

Pamela Schwartz, MPH, Kaiser Permanente, Community Benefit, Oakland, CA
Suzanne M. Rauzon, MPH, RD, Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Center for Weight and Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Allen Cheadle, PhD, Group Health Research Institute, Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Seattle, WA
Rebecca Spring, MPH, Nutrition Policy Institute, University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Berkeley, CA
Jean Nudelman, MPH, Community Benefit Programs, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA
Kathryn Boyle, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region, Oakland, CA
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Introduction. A substantial investment is being made in community-level obesity prevention initiatives. What is their impact on related health behaviors? This paper presents evaluation results from the Kaiser Permanente HEAL (Healthy Eating Active Living) Zones Initiative, a place-based initiative implemented from 2011 to 2014 in six ethnically diverse, low-income communities in Northern California.

 Methods. We use a population-dose framework to assess the impact of policy and environmental change strategies on population level behavior change. The dose measure is calculated by multiplying reach (percent of the target population exposed) and strength (effect size) of the interventions. The strength estimates are based on either strategy-level evaluation results or ratings based on frequency and intensity of the interventions. We will correlate the estimated impact from the dose estimates with the actual impact observed from pre/post school-based surveys of youth and mail surveys of adults (follow-up data to be collected in Spring 2015).

 Results. A total of over 150 strategies have been implemented to date in the six HEAL Zone communities, reaching 102,000 residents. Results will be presented examining whether HEAL Zones communities with higher-dose policy and environmental change strategies had correspondingly greater improvement in food and physical activity behaviors. Published results from an earlier iteration of HEAL Zones showed positive results where high dose strategies were implemented.

 Discussion. These evaluation results will provide information about whether policy and environmental interventions of sufficient reach, duration, and frequency of exposure lead to population-level changes in food and physical activity behaviors.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
Describe how to use the concept of population dose to evaluation community obesity prevention initiatives Describe the impact the HEAL Zones initiative in Northern California has had on population-level behaviors

Keyword(s): Community-Based Partnership & Collaboration, Community-Based Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I lead the evaluation efforts described in the abstract.
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: 4227.0: Collective Impact and Community-Based Efforts for Food and Nutrition