Intervention Strategies

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An intervention strategy (approach) is an activity intended to prevent disease or promote health in a group of people.

Intervention strategies answer the question: What are the best available options for taking action to prevent and control obesity?

Intervention strategies targeting the major contributing factors to obesity—breastfeeding, healthy eating, and physical activity—were identified through an examination of evidence reviews and other summary documents related to obesity prevention. This section contains summaries of identified intervention strategies with the goal of providing public health practitioners with easy-to-use information about the best options available for planning effective obesity prevention programs.

Intervention strategy summaries are organized by the targeted contributing factor (breastfeeding, healthy eating, and physical activity) and by setting (coming soon). When you click on one of these factors, a list of strategies specific to the factor will be available to you. Select a strategy of interest to view a summary of the available evidence. Each strategy summary provides:

• an Overview, including applicable levels of the socioecological model, outcomes addressed in the evidence base, settings for which the strategy has been evaluated, and a description of the strategy.
• Examples of interventions based on the strategy.
• a brief synopsis of the Evidence pertaining to the strategy’s effectiveness.
• Key Considerations for planning, implementing, or evaluating interventions based on or incorporating the strategy.
• other Resources that may be useful to practitioners when planning interventions using the strategy.

Using the Information in this Section

The information in this section is intended to inform your decision making. In using the information included in this section, we encourage you to consider the following:

1. No single strategy will have an impact on the prevalence of obesity.
   Obesity is a public health concern that leaves no group of people untouched. It crosses demographic, geographic, political, and social divides. To effectively reduce population rates of obesity, it is critical that public health practitioners develop comprehensive obesity prevention programs.ⁱ Such programs should target contributing factors at multiple levels of the socioecological model, by using multiple intervention strategies in a variety of settings.^ii,iii
2. Priority populations need to be involved in planning and implementation.
   Certain groups of people experience disproportionate rates of obesity and overweight.¹ To eliminate these health disparities, public health practitioners must implement participatory assessment and planning processes to ensure that interventions are both culturally-appropriate and sustainable.^1,2,iv
3. The existing evidence base is limited.
   Evidence-based practice can be using intervention strategies for which there is an evidence base; in addition, it can be contributing to the evidence base by evaluating untested intervention methods and disseminating findings.^1,v The intervention strategy summaries included here only provide information contained in existing reviews of effectiveness. Therefore, practitioners should assess:
   • if evidence-based intervention strategies are appropriate—Has this intervention strategy been used with diverse populations?.
   • whether evidence-based intervention strategies can be adapted—Can I apply this strategy that has been evaluated in worksites to another setting such as churches?.
   • what other promising intervention methods could be applicable—Should we consider a strategy where direct evidence of effect is not yet available, for example restricting food advertising to children, as a strategy for impacting population-rates of obesity?.

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ⁱNSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition. (2005, March 1). Best options for promoting healthy weight and preventing weight gain in NSW. Retrieved June 4, 2007, from NSW Department of Health Web site: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2005/pdf/healthyweight.pdf

ⁱⁱBrownson, R. C., Haire-Joshu, D., & Luke, D. A. (2006). Shaping the context of health: a review of environmental and policy approaches in the prevention of chronic diseases [Electronic version]. Annual Review of Public Health, 27, 341-370.

ⁱⁱMatson-Koffman, D. M., Brownstein, J. N., Neiner, J. A., & Greaney, M. L. (2005). A site-specific literature review of policy and environmental interventions that promote physical activity and nutrition for cardiovascular health: What works? American Journal of Health Promotion, 19(3), 167-193.

^ivSahay, T. B., Ashbury, F. D., Roberts, M., & Rootman, I. (2006). Effective components for nutrition interventions: a review and application of the literature [Electronic version]. Health Promotion Practice, 7(4), 418-427.

^vAnderson, L. M., Brownson, R. C., Fullilove, M. T., Teutsch, S. M., Novick, L. F., Fielding, J., et al. (2005). Evidence-based policy and practice: promises and limits. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 28(5S), 226-230.