A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach for Preventing Childhood Obesity: The Communities and Schools Together Project

Deb Johnson-Shelton, Geraldine Moreno-Black, Cody Evers, Nicole Zwink
2015 Progress in Community Health Partnerships Research Education and Action  
C hildhood obesity has become a major public health concern in the United States. Over the last 30 years, obesity rates have doubled for U.S. children and tripled for adolescents. 1 The term obesogenic has been used to describe the living environments that have developed over the last 50 years that have resulted in the current consumption of readily available, low-cost, energy-dense foods and corresponding declines in population physical activity. 2-5 Obesity is seen as a "complex system in
more » ... h behavior is affected by multiple individual-level factors and socioenvironmental Abstract Background: Childhood obesity is a systemic and complex, multilevel public health problem. Research approaches are needed that effectively engage communities in reversing environmental determinants of child obesity. Objectives: This article discusses the Communities and Schools Together (CAST) Project and lessons learned about the project's community-based participatory research (CBPR) model. Methods: A partnership of schools, community organizations, and researchers used multiple methods to examine environmental health risks for childhood obesity and conduct school-community health programs. Action work groups structured partner involvement for designing and implementing study phases. Lessons Learned: CBPR in child obesity prevention involves engaging multiple communities with overlapping yet divergent goals. Schools are naturally situated to participate in child obesity projects, but engagement of key personnel is essential for functional partnerships. Complex societal problems require CBPR approaches that can align diverse communities and necessitate significant coordination by researchers. CBPR can provide simultaneous health promotion across multiple communities in childhood obesity prevention initiatives. Support for emergent partner activities is an essential practice for maintaining community interest and involvement in multiyear CBPR projects. Conclusion: Investigator-initiated CBPR partnerships can effectively organize and facilitate large, health-promoting partnerships involving multiple, diverse stakeholder communities. Lessons learned from CAST illustrate the synergy that can propel projects that are holistically linked to the agents of a community. Keywords Child obesity prevention, communities and schools, community-based participatory research, GIS and health, community health factors (ie, factors related to the food, physical, cultural, or economic environment that enable or constrain human behavior, or both)." 6(p.1) These complex, systemic factors that have contributed to the current obesity epidemic require new forms of health promotion across multiple dimensions of our economy, public policy frameworks, and community environments. 6-8 CBPR is an approach that can help to organize and connect community organizations with schools and families for obesity prevention research and interventions because it empowers community solutions and adaptions to local needs.
doi:10.1353/cpr.2015.0056 pmid:26548786 pmcid:PMC4745647 fatcat:tbclm5swbrdibblu3v6g5gwm4a