- Title
- Reducing obesity in early childhood: results from Romp & Chomp, an Australian community-wide intervention program
- Creator
- de Silva-Sanigorski, Andrea M.; Bell, A. Colin; Robertson, Narelle; Swinburn, Boyd A.; Kremer, Peter; Nichols, Melanie; Crellin, Maree; Smith, Michael; Sharp, Sharon; de Groot, Florentine; Carpenter, Lauren; Boak, Rachel
- Relation
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 91, Issue 4, p. 831-840
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2009.28826
- Publisher
- American Society for Nutrition
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2010
- Description
- There is growing evidence that community-based interventions can reduce childhood obesity in older children. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of the Romp & Chomp intervention in reducing obesity and promoting healthy eating and active play in children aged 0–5 y. Romp & Chomp was a community-wide, multisetting, multistrategy intervention conducted in Australia from 2004 to 2008. The intervention occurred in a large regional city (Geelong) with a target group of 12,000 children and focused on community capacity building and environmental (political, sociocultural, and physical) changes to increase healthy eating and active play in early-childhood care and educational settings. The evaluation was repeat cross-sectional with a quasiexperimental design and comparison sample. Main outcome measures were body mass index (BMI), standardized BMI (zBMI; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 reference charts), and prevalence of overweight/obesity and obesity-related behaviors in children aged 2 and 3.5 y. After the intervention there was a significantly lower mean weight, BMI, and zBMI in the 3.5-y-old subsample and a significantly lower prevalence of overweight/obesity in both the 2- and 3.5-y-old subsamples (by 2.5 and 3.4 percentage points, respectively) than in the comparison sample (a difference of 0.7 percentage points; P < 0.05) compared with baseline values. Intervention child-behavioral data showed a significantly lower intake of packaged snacks (by 0.23 serving), fruit juice (0.52 serving), and cordial (0.43 serving) than that in the comparison sample (all P < 0.05). A community-wide multisetting, multistrategy intervention in early-childhood settings can reduce childhood obesity and improve young children's diets. This trial was registered with the Australian Clinical Trials Registry at anzctr.org.au as ACTRN12607000374460.
- Subject
- childhood obesity; Romp & Chomp; healthy eating
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/932597
- Identifier
- uon:11400
- Identifier
- ISSN:0002-9165
- Language
- eng
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