The American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) announced its awardees of the first Childhood Obesity Challenge this week. Several members of the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) were recognized for their “innovative ideas to combat the childhood obesity epidemic.”
NCCOR Envision member Y. Claire Wang, M.D. Sc.D., and colleagues at from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health took second prize of the competition with their “Caloric Calculator” submission.
The Caloric Calculator is a user-friendly web tool that allows individuals in a broad range of roles — including decision makers, teachers, administrators, community leaders, and parents — to explore and compare effective, evidence-based options to reduce childhood obesity. Learn more about the tool here.
A team comprised of NCCOR members Matthew Trowbridge, M.D., M.P.H., and his colleagues from the University of Virginia; VMDO Architects; and NCCOR member Terry T-K Huang, Ph.D., M.P.H., with the University of Nebraska Medical Center tied for third prize with their “Healthy Eating Design Guidelines.”
The Guidelines for school architecture focus on creating optimal “healthy eating” learning environments for children and communities, and were developed during a multi-year collaboration between academic public health researchers and school architects. This aligns with efforts promoted by the NCCOR Green Health project area to increase integration of childhood obesity prevention as an objective of green building. Learn more about the Guidelines and AJPM submission here.
NCCOR seeks to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and application of childhood obesity research, and its members from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and U.S. Department of Agriculture have numerous areas of expertise.
“FoodCorps” was chosen as the winner of the Challenge; it uses a team of AmeriCorps service members embedded in U.S. public schools to directly focus on healthy eating for children through education as well as work with local chefs, farmers, and school food service to bring nutritious food to school lunch trays. Learn more about FoodCorps and the AJPM submission here.