Exploring global strategies for promotion of population-level physical activity and obesity prevention to inform U.S. policy, practice, and research

This project will build on two Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants to identify and spread promising global approaches to increasing national physical activity levels and reducing childhood obesity levels and disparities in obesity's prevalence. An increasing number of countries across the world have identified inactivity and obesity as serious public health priorities, and several have launched and evaluated comprehensive policies and interventions that engage multiple sectors (e.g., business, early childhood education, education, parks and recreation, and transportation) with promising results--increasing physical activity levels and reducing childhood obesity levels (e.g., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, and Finland). This grant supports: (1) the participation of three Latin American researchers in October 2014 global panels organized by the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR)--one taking place at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the other at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center in Washington--to spur funding for global research on which the United States and other nations can capitalize; and (2) a global plenary symposium, speakers, papers, and poster sessions at the 2015 Active Living Research (ALR) annual conference (February 22 through 25, in San Diego) with a focus on lessons learned from Australia, the European Union, Mexico, and the U.S.-Mexican border that can inform RWJF's new Culture of Health vision and mission. Results will be widely disseminated through the NCCOR and ALR websites, webinars, social media postings, and a 2016 ALR peer-reviewed journal supplement. RWJF will include this project as part of the overall evaluation of its early-stage work in global health.