A new interactive tool, the CHOICES Childhood Obesity National Action Kit, is live today on the Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) Project website. Use the Action Kit to compare best value for money strategies to reduce childhood obesity.
The CHOICES team has projected the national population reach, impact on health, implementation costs, and health care cost savings for 14 effective strategies across multiple settings – including schools, early care and out of school time, communities, and clinical. These include strategies to increase time children spend being physically active during the school day, policies to reduce access to unhealthy foods and drinks, and initiatives to increase physical activity in early care and afterschool programs.
This kit provides a menu of strategies with strong evidence that they can reduce obesity and/or the behaviors that contribute to obesity. The strategies presented in the kit have strong evidence for helping children to grow up at a healthy weight by promoting, for example, increased time spent being physically active in school, reducing exposure to advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks, and reducing consumption of sugary drinks. The kit allows you to explore up to four strategies at a time across settings so you can compare results for national implementation. These results can help guide decision-making in your community related to childhood obesity prevention.
The kit can be used in several ways. In addition to national predictions of the population reach, health impact, and impact on cost, the kit also provides information about the resources and activities required for implementing each strategy, which can help officials at the state or local level with childhood obesity prevention policy and program planning.
Visit the KitThe kit can help state and local health agencies and federal agencies choose and implement best-value for money strategies to prevent childhood obesity. The kit can also help inform state and local decision-makers (mayors, city councils, legislators, governors), public health and/or community leaders, researchers and others looking for strong evidence on strategies and the resources needed for their implementation.
For More Information, Visit the User GuideIn addition, the kit includes strategies that communities across the country have found feasible to implement – from sugary drink excise taxes in places like Philadelphia and Seattle, to training and technical assistance to improve early care and education environments through the NAP SACC initiative in West Virginia and New Hampshire. A number of communities have selected strategies in the action kit to explore their cost-effectiveness with the CHOICES team and some have then used that data to inform decision-making regarding implementation, such as electronic decision support for pediatric medical providers in Denver.
The CHOICES Childhood Obesity National Action Kit was developed by the CHOICES Project team, specifically Katie Giles and Molly Garrone – under the leadership of Dr. Steven Gortmaker and Dr. Angie Cradock – and in partnership with Burness and Alley Interactive. The JPB Foundation provided funding for the development of the CHOICES Childhood Obesity National Action Kit.