This month, NCCOR released a new white paper following a workshop convened on May 20-21, 2019, called “Advancing Measurement of Individual Behaviors Related to Childhood Obesity.” This workshop was the first in a series of three workshops funded by The JPB Foundation and focused on measurement needs to capture individual behaviors related to childhood obesity. The other two workshops in the series are planned to focus on measurement needs for high-risk populations and measurement needs to capture policy and environmental influences.
This workshop aimed to gather together leading experts to (1) explore next steps for measurement science relevant to emerging areas for diet and physical activity in children, particularly from birth to twelve years of age, and (2) examine measurement science issues in two other topics of new relevance to childhood obesity—sedentary behavior and sleep.
Using findings from this first workshop, NCCOR released “Advancing Measurement of Individual Behaviors Related to Childhood Obesity: Implications and Recommendations for the Field,” which includes recommendations for actionable steps to address short-term (1-3 years) and medium-term (3-5 years) measurement needs in these areas. Recommendations include developing measurement methods for children younger than age 6 years, defining terms and core indicators or domains that can be measured, and examining the important of family, social, and environmental contexts and how they evolve with age. The white paper can be accessed on the NCCOR website at www.nccor.org/measurement-workshop-series/.
White papers for the other two workshops also will be posted on the NCCOR website. In addition, NCCOR plans to publish a synthesis of findings and recommendations from the three workshops in the scientific literature. NCCOR hopes these efforts will ultimately help reduce childhood obesity.