National Leadership for Obesity Prevention and Control

CDC is addressing obesity to create places where Americans can make healthy choices about nutrition and physical activity and where such choices are available, affordable, and accessible.

CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) is leading efforts to reduce obesity and its related conditions through policy and environmental strategies, developing partnerships, and innovative programming. The CDC has engaged policymakers, partners, and stakeholders in leadership activities including the 2007 Public Health Grand Rounds on Cutting Edge Legal Preparedness for Chronic Disease Prevention , the 2008 National Summit on Legal Preparedness for Obesity Prevention and Control, and the 2008 Community Approaches to Obesity Prevention meeting.

In July 2009, CDC will host Weight of the Nation , an inaugural conference for obesity prevention and control. The conference will focus on using policy, environmental, economic, and legal strategies in four major settings to improve the health of Americans. These settings include the community, medical care facilities, schools and daycare centers, and the workplace.

Infrastructure improvements and capacity development at the community, state, and national levels are necessary to eliminate obesogenic environments—environments where healthy options are not available. Activities undertaken by CDC to improve policies and environments include the following.

Innovative Partnerships 

• CDC is addressing obesity by creating partnerships with commercial health plans. This strategy will help public health professionals and health care plan administrators collaborate to improve obesity interventions designed for medical care settings. 
• The Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership (CP) seeks to foster policy and environmental change with partnerships from other fields not traditionally involved in public health. CP currently focuses on transportation and food systems to develop active living environments and improve access to healthy foods. 
• The Common Community Measures for Obesity Prevention project (COCOMO or Measures Project) led to the development of 24 promising environmental and policy strategies for local governments (cities, towns, counties, and parishes) to support healthy eating and active living in their community. The measures were pilot-tested in 20 communities earlier this year. A MMWR Recommendations and Report as well as a Users Guide are expected to be released at the Weight of the National Conference in July 2009. 
• CDC is leading the Early Assessment of Programs and Policies to Prevent Childhood Obesity (Early Assessment) project which identifies promising, local programs and policies and systematically assesses those projects appropriate for more in-depth and rigorous evaluation. Programs and policies targeting low-income children are given priority consideration.

Evidence-Based Guidelines

In collaboration with the Task Force on Community Preventive Services CDC is conducting evidence-based reviews of obesity interventions in the medical care, workplace, and community settings. Further, CDC is developing guidance documents to highlight evidence-based policy and environmental strategies and promising practices for the obesity target areas. These target areas include increasing physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and breastfeeding, while decreasing sugar sweetened beverage consumption, high-calorie/low-nutrient food consumption, and television viewing.

Translating Practice-Based Evidence and Research

CDC is translating and disseminating practice-based evidence and research findings for practitioners and communities. Recent translation products include the Swift Worksite Assessment and Translation, an evaluation method for workplaces to support health promotion programs for employees and the Weight Management Research to Practice Series, which summarizes the science for various weight management topics, highlighting the implications of the research findings for public health and medical care professionals.

Supporting State-Based Programs

Twenty-three states are currently funded through CDC's Nutrition and Physical Activity and Obesity (NPAO) Cooperative Agreement Program which coordinates statewide efforts with multiple partners to address obesity. The program's focus is on policy and environmental change initiatives. These initiatives help support the following behavioral targets: increasing physical activity; the consumption of fruits and vegetables; and breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity; and decreasing television viewing, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and the consumption of high-calorie/low-nutrient foods. The program seeks to address health disparities and requires a comprehensive state plan.

Through these activities CDC is addressing obesity to create places where Americans can make healthy choices about nutrition and physical activity and where such choices are available, affordable, and accessible.

To register for the upcoming Weight of the Nation conference please visit: http://www.weightofthenation.org.