Childhood obesity is an important determinant of adult obesity. Obesity is associated with social and health problems. Intervention to decrease and prevent further increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity may include child, family, household, community, environment, and policy components. Including multiple components or levels of influence increases the likelihood of impact of programs that aim to decrease prevalence of childhood obesity. The Children’s Healthy Living Program for Remote Underserved Minority Populations of the Pacific (CHL) is a multilevel multicomponent intervention program in five jurisdictions (Hawaii, Guam, Alaska, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) of the United States affiliated Pacific. CHL was designed through combining scientific evidence and community input, implemented by supporting community role models and programs that were engaged in aspects of the identified intervention components, facilitating coalition building, and is being evaluated in a multilevel analytic model and by process evaluation. CHL will be described as an example of developing and implementing multilevel multicomponent childhood obesity intervention programs that aim to make comprehensive systems change. Emphasis will be on strategies and approaches to childhood obesity prevention intervention that can be adapted for diverse populations.
Funding source: United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Grant 2011- 68001-30335.