The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) has launched four Measures Registry User Guides to help childhood obesity researchers and practitioners choose appropriate measures for their research and evaluation efforts. The four User Guides focus on core areas of childhood obesity research: individual diet, food environment, individual physical activity, and physical activity environment.
The User Guides were created through a two-year grant from The JPB Foundation, NCCOR’s first strategic alliance partner. The project represents a continued commitment to encourage consistent use of high-quality, comparable measures and research methods across childhood obesity prevention research and evaluation efforts focused on diet and physical activity.
The User Guides build on NCCOR’s Measures Registry—a free, online repository of scientific articles about measures—widely recognized as a key resource that gives researchers and practitioners access to detailed information on measures in one easy-to-search location.
The User Guides provide an overview of measurement, describe general principles of measurement selection, present case studies that walk users through the process of using the Measures Registry and direct researchers and practitioners to additional resources and sources of useful information. The Measures Registry User Guides are available on the NCCOR website as easy-to-read webpages and downloadable PDFs. The Guides are written for both expert researchers and graduate students or practitioners who may be using nutrition or physical activity measures for the first time. The PDF versions can work as text for graduate-level classes, and teaching slides will soon be available.
“The NCCOR Measures Registry is a great resource, but the large number of measures can make it difficult for users to find what they want. The new User Guides are designed to improve the user experience through step-by-step directions,” said Jim Sallis, author of the Physical Activity Environment User Guide and member of NCCOR’s Expert Scientific Panel. “The goal is to help readers find—and use—measures suitable for their research or evaluation objectives.”
Each Guide was written by a team of leading experts. The Guides were also reviewed by expert panels in nutrition and physical activity (see authors and expert panels below).
“The User Guides provide in-depth discussions of each domain for researchers and practitioners. They will be enormously helpful to my doctoral students in making effective use of the variety of measures available in the Measures Registry,” said Alice Ammerman, a reviewer on the Nutrition Expert Panel. “The Guides will move the field forward by promoting more consistent use of measures, which will allow for more standardization and synthesis among domains.”
Stay Tuned! NCCOR will two host two webinars on March 29 and April 12, both at 2:00 p.m. ET, on the Measures Registry User Guides to provide an overview of each Guide and highlight key features.
Authors of the Guides
- Individual Diet: Sharon Kirkpatrick, PhD, MHSc, RD, and Amanda Raffoul, MSc, University of Waterloo
- Food Environment: Leslie Lytle, PhD, and Allison Myers, PhD, MPH, University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Public Health
- Individual Physical Activity: Gregory Welk, PhD, Iowa State University; James Morrow, PhD, FACSM, FNAK, University of North Texas, Pedro Saint Maurice, PhD, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
- Physical Activity Environment: Jordan Carlson, PhD, and Kelsey Dean, MS, RD, LD, CCRP, Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics; James Sallis, PhD, University of California, San Diego
Expert Panels
- Food and Nutrition Expert Panel
Alice Ammerman, DrPH, RD, University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Public Health
Carol Boushey, PhD, MPH, RD, University of Hawaii Cancer Center
Karen Webb, PhD, MPH, and Gail Woodward-Lopez, MPH, RD, University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute - Physical Activity Expert Panel
Genevieve Dunton, PhD, MPH, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine
Patty Freedson, PhD, University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health and Health Sciences Brian Saelens, PhD, Seattle Children’s Hospital